16-28 February 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline

Here is the list of the main Cyber Attacks happened during the second half of February 2014 (Part I here). As you will soon discover, unlike the previous months, the activity in this second half of February has shown a sensible decrease both in number and in size in comparison with the previous months.

One of the few exception to this decreasing trend is  the University of Maryland, that was the victim of a cyber attack that led to the compromising of more than 300,o00 records.

Apparently even the hacktivists have slowed down their attacks with few exceptions (the Syrian Electronic Army and some sporadic actions executed by hackers affiliated to Anonymous.

Interestingly the cyber espionage front has been the more interesting with a couple of remarkable events (a cyber attack against a French aerospace engine maker and the revelation of further details concerning the Iranian attack against a US Navy Computer Network.

As usual, 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, 2012 and now 2013 (regularly updated). You may also want to have a look at the Cyber Attack Statistics, 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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16-31 March 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline

And here we are with the second part of the Cyber Attacks Timeline (first part here).

The prize for the most noticeable breach of the month goes in Korea, where a 31-year-old man has been arrested for infiltrating the account of 25 million users of Never, a local Internet Portal (actually it happened several months ago but was unveiled in this month). Other noticeable events include the trail of attacks against several Universities (Maryland, Auburn, Purdue, Wisconsin-Parkside), the compromising of personal information of 550,000 employees and users of Spec’s, the leak of 158,000 forum users of Boxee.tv and 95,000 users of Cerberus and, finally, a breach targeting the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Last but not least, even the infamous Operation Windigo has deserved a mention in the timeline.

Moving to Hacktivism, chronicles report of a couple of hijackings performed, as usual, by the Syrian Electronic Army, a couple of operations carried on by the Russian Cyber Command and a (probably fake) attack by someone in disguise of Anonymous Ukraine, claiming to to have leaked 7 million Russian Credit Cards. Probably a recycle of old leaks.

As usual, 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, 2012 and now 2013 (regularly updated). You may also want to have a look at the Cyber Attack Statistics, 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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16-30 April 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline

It’s time for the report of the cyber activity in April. As usual this post summarizes the main events between 16 and 30 April, whereas the first part covering the attacks between 1 and 15 April 2014 can be found here (ok, actually there’s one attack I had to include in this timeline, dated 10 April).

Apparently this second half has shown a decreasing trend (who knows, maybe the Easter has brought good intentions), nonetheless there have been some noticeable events such as the breach to AOL Mail affecting potentially 50 million users, the breach to Eircom and the interesting trend of attacks against educational institutions (Universities of Virginia, Iowa, North Carolina Wilmington).

In this general decreasing trend, even the attacks motivated by hacktivism have shown a consistent reduction in volume and impact (the Syrian Electronic Army has admitted to be in vacation).

Nothing else of particularly significant to mention but the continual cyber skirmishes between India and Pakistan. Although interesting from an analytic  perspective, the attacks were ‘limited’ to defacements, and hence the overall impact was modest.

As usual, 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, 2012 and now 2013 (regularly updated). You may also want to have a look at the Cyber Attack Statistics, 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).

16-30 Apr 2014 Cyber Attacks Timelines (more…)

Continue Reading 16-30 April 2014 Cyber Attacks Timeline