Five Devastating Hacks That Predate Sony

By Paul Roberts, Editor in Chief, The Security Ledger

2

Five Devastating Hacks that Predate Sony

Sony Pictures Entertainment is the most recent and, perhaps, the highest-profile victim of what might be considered a “Category 5” hack. But it’s hardly the only company to get digitally pants’d by hackers. Here is a list of some other notable victims and details of how they got hacked.

3

1. HBGary FederalVictim: HBGary Federal

Attacker: Hacker group Anonymous

When: February 5-6, 2011

How? Compromised the company’s Google account to access the CEO’s Twitter account, deface the HBGary website, and expose sensitive information

Outcome: Lead to controversy and HBGary’s acquisition by ManTech International in 2012Image via anonymous.

4

2. Saudi-AramcoVictim: Saudi oil giant Saudi-Aramco and other companies

Attacker: “The Cutting Sword of Justice” hacktivist group

When: 2012

How? Shamoon malware wiped clean the hard drives of infected machines

Outcome: Damaged ~30,000 computers; did not disrupt oil production but was one of the most destructive hacking attacks at the time

Saudi-Aramco headquarters, a primary site impacted by the Shamoon Worm. Image via Wikipedia.

5

3. DigiNotar

Victim: Dutch certificate authority DigiNotar

Attacker: Comodohacker

When: 2011

How? Comodohacker breached DigiNotar to issue over 500 fake SSL certificates that were used to conduct man in the middle attacks against Iranian citizens

Outcome: Dutch government took over management of DigiNotar's systems and the company declared bankruptcy within the month

Image via Pastebin.

6

4. Code SpacesAttacker: Unknown

Victim: Code Spaces

When: June 17, 2014

How? Following a massive DDOS attack, hackers took over Code Spaces’ Amazon Web Services control panel and demanded ransom

Outcome: Code Spaces lost the majority of their cloud data and closed their business after disclosing the incident to customers

Image via Code Spaces.

7

5. The National Security AgencyVictim: The NSA

Attacker: Former Dell Inc. and Booz Allen Hamilton contractor Edward Snowden

When: 2013

How? Snowden used his system administrator access and social engineering tactics to gain access to an abundance of information exposing the NSA’s mass surveillance programs

Outcome: The agency’s sensitive documents were leaked to journalists worldwide

Image via Security Affairs.

Confidential 8

Learn More

Interested in learning about how devastating data breaches can be prevented? Download our whitepaper, “How to Prevent Another Wikileaks” by Dan Geer: http://bit.ly/1xSE7jk

For more on these hacks read the full“Five Devastating Hacks that Predate Sony” post on the Digital Guardian blog: http://bit.ly/1DZiPZA