Lady Gaga

1-15 November 2012 Cyber Attacks Timeline

Post author:Paolo Passeri
Post last modified:May 9, 2017
Post category:Cyber Attacks Timelines Security
Post comments:1 Comment
Reading time:7 mins read
Post published:November 19, 2012

The first half of November 2012 has been undoubtedly characterized by Hacktivism. Not only the month has begun with the ProjectBlackStar by the infamous Team Ghostshell (2.5 million accounts leaked belonging to different Russian sectors), but also the long-awaited November 5 has brought an unprecedented wave of Cyber Attacks against organizations all over the world, including Symantec and the UK Ministry Of Defence (more than 3,000 accounts leaked in both cases).

Moreover, after the dramatic event of the 14th of November (the killing of Ahmed Al-Jaabari, the commander of the military wing of Hamas by an Israeli missile and the consequent Operation “Pillar Of Defense”), the Anonymous have started a massive campaign of Cyber Attacks against Israel sites and in support of Palestine. This campaign is still ongoing even if it is really impossible to track all the attacks (nearly 700 defaced web sites so far), and hence, as far as possible, only a general overview is provided.

Of course these events have shadowed the other attacks, including the ones to LG (3,300 accounts leaked in two different cyber attacks) and Adobe (150,000 records allegedly compromised).

The chronicles also report of an alleged cyber attack against Telecom Italia (30,000 accounts allegedly leaked), even if there several doubts about the real authenticity of this attack.

If you want to have an idea of how fragile our data are inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011 and 2012 and the related statistics (regularly updated), and follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.

Also, feel free to submit remarkable incidents that in your opinion deserve to be included in the timelines (and charts).

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December 2011 Cyber Attacks Timeline (Part II)

Post author:Paolo Passeri
Post last modified:May 24, 2015
Post category:Cyber Attacks Timelines Cyberwar Security
Post comments:2 Comments
Reading time:9 mins read
Post published:December 30, 2011

This infamous 2011 is nearly gone and here it is the last post for this year concerning the 2011 Cyber Attacks Timeline. As you will soon see from an infosec perspective this month has been characterized by two main events: the LulzXmas with its terrible Stratfor hack (whose effects are still ongoing with the recent release of 860,000 accounts), and an unprecented wave of breaches in China which led to the dump of nearly 88 million of users for a theoretical cost of nearly $19 million (yes the Sony brech is close). For the rest an endless cyberwar between India and Pakistan, some hactivism and (unfortunately) the usual amounts of “minor” breaches and defacement. After the page break you find all the references.

Last but not least… This post is my very personal way to wish you a happy new infosec year.

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List Of Hacked Celebrities Who Had (Nude) Photos Leaked

Post author:Paolo Passeri
Post last modified:May 24, 2015
Post category:Security
Post comments:2 Comments
Reading time:4 mins read
Post published:August 7, 2012

During Summer we always try to spend our free time in a more profitable manner, for instance reading gossip chronicles.

From this point of view, July 2012 has not been a particularly lucky month for Carly Rae Jepsen. On July the 7^th, her website has been the target of a DDoS attack by a member of the infamous collective @TheWikiBoat. During the second half of July, she has joined the (not so) exclusive club of celebrities who had compromising pictures and video stolen from their computers and mobile devices. This is not an isolated episode since celebrities have shown an insane predilection to make (possibly) XXX photos and store them with few or no precautions at all. With the consequence that it is not so uncommon that the private material gets stolen with the purpose to blackmail the victims or simply to sell it.

Unfortunately the experience has shown that, almost always, both ideas end up in a miserable failure and the photos get usually leaked, causing fans to run to their search engines in the hunt for the private snaps.

Honestly speaking, I do not understand how it feels to take photos of oneself in compromising positions (but I am not a celebrity, at least so far). For sure, if I were a celebrity I would be aware of my level of exposition and its consequent capability to attract the unwelcome attentions of stalkers (and addicted hackers). That level of exposition, alone, justifies the need to pay more attention for private material, most of all if it contains XXX shots. But maybe celebrities have not time for complex passwords…

To let you understand how often these events occur, I browsed the chronicles of the last years compiling the following gallery. Even if most of the leaks came from the so-called hacker ring targeting more than 50 celebrities, you will find many surprising (sometimes recurring) victims, before coming to the disappointing conclusion that “the leopard does not change his spots”.

I am afraid that this chart will soon need an update.

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Hack’n Roll: Here’s The Special Chart of Singers Who Had Their Twitter Account Hacked

Post author:Paolo Passeri
Post last modified:May 24, 2015
Post category:Security
Post comments:0 Comments
Reading time:3 mins read
Post published:October 27, 2012

October 2012 has deserved a bad surprise for the members of the famous rock band Garbage, who had their official Twitter account hacked from an unknown cybercrook who enjoyed posting bogus messages to their nearly 60k followers.

Unfortunately, among the music stars, they are not the only ones who have suffered this sad fate, and actually, since 2009 to present, the list is quite long.

Britney Spears opens this special chart, which also includes high-profile singers such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Kesha. Brit currently holds the unwelcome record to have been hacked twice, but the group of the victims is quite varied and covers different genres: pranksters and cybercrooks, at least from this point of view, have proven to be impartial.

The accounts have been hacked for different motivations: scam, hacktivism, or simple fun, and accessed via lost phones or by mean of brute-force or password-guessing techniques.

Famous singers are used to be on top of selling charts.I believe they willingly avoid to rank at the top of this unwelcome chart (after the jump you will find the related links).

If you want to have an idea of how fragile our data are inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011 and 2012 (regularly updated), at the Cyber Attack Statistics, and follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.

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