Cybersecurity Events that Changed the IT Landscape

The timeline of cybersecurity events accounts for almost two decades. Since 2005, there have been a plethora of cybersecurity attacks that have changed the course of the IT landscape. Whether it’s government agencies, tech companies, or the defense sector, no one is immune to the dangling threat of a cybersecurity attack.

Not to mention there have been losses worth millions of Dollars due to the various rampant cybersecurity attacks. In fact, data breaches impact millions of users each year. With the advent of digital transformation and the tech revolution, the number of data breaches is at an all-time high.

In the 21st century, maintaining optimal operations has become the standard to drive growth and data is at the center of it. Hackers now exploit data-dependent companies and individuals with long-lasting consequences. The truth is that hackers have become cleverer and execute malware and ransomware attacks on a bigger scale.

Keeping that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the most dangerous and biggest cybersecurity incidents of the last two decades:

• Alibaba

Alibaba faced a major cybersecurity incident in 2019. It took place a month before the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The cybersecurity breach managed to impact over 1.1 billion user data. In a span of eight months, a developer collaborated with an affiliate marketer and scrapped customer data like mobile numbers and usernames from the main Alibaba shopping website.

Realistically, the developer was collecting the data to sell it on the black market. But despite the prison sentence of three years for the marketer and the developer, the damage had already been done.  It took Alibaba a few years to change the public perception and communicate that it values the data of its partners and users.

• Yahoo

In August 2013, Yahoo had one of the biggest cybersecurity breaches that compromised more than 3 billion accounts. In fact, IT historians claim that a big chunk of records was exposed due to a direct attack on Yahoo. After the first public announcement of this cybersecurity incident, Yahoo continues to face many cybersecurity threats.

But 2013 event was arguably the biggest one that managed to impact and compromise billions of accounts. After that incident, Yahoo revised the actual number of compromised accounts, and it gradually impacted its market position for years to come.

• Sina Weibo

In March 2020, one of the major cybersecurity events attacked China’s biggest social media platforms. The attack compromised around 538 million user accounts on Sino Weibo. What’s startling is that the company publicly announced that the hacker got access to part of Sino Wiebo’s database. Reports indicate that the attacker managed to sell the database with phone numbers, location, usernames, gender, and other personal information on the dark web.

• LinkedIn

In the last seven years, LinkedIn has faced three confirmed major cybersecurity incidents. But in June 2021, a data breach attack compromised more than 700 million users on LinkedIn. In fact, the professional networking platform confirms that around 90% of its total user base was affected.

The hacker had developed new data scrapping tactics by exploiting the LinkedIn website’s API prior to dumping 500 million of first-hand data of customers. LinkedIn, however, argues that private and sensitive data was not exposed during the incident.

The hacker, “God User” contained a multitude of data like phone numbers, email addresses, and geolocation records. Despite complex social engineering, LinkedIn found that there were many malicious actors at play.

• Dubsmash

In 2018, Dubsmash became a victim of a huge cybersecurity incident that compromised up to 160 million user accounts. Soon after the data breach, the video messaging company based in NY confirmed that the personal data of millions of users had been stolen. From the date of births to password hashes, most data was up for grabs in the black market. After the acknowledgment of data breach and sale by Dubsmash, it now adheres to strict password management practices.

• Facebook

The list of landmark cybersecurity incidents wouldn’t be complete without Facebook. In April 2019, it became public knowledge that the social media giant had compromised the data of more than 500 million users. The social media platform has been the face of the controversy after Cambridge Analytica report.

IT experts and ICOs found that Facebook was in direct breach of data protection laws and failed to safeguard the personal information of users. In fact, Facebook harvested more than 87 million user data. But this breach indicates criminal intent that breached and sold data of millions of users.

Due to this incident, hundreds and thousands of phone numbers, usernames, and other contact information is up for sale. Cybersecurity experts found that the breach managed to exploit the credential information that verifies the phone numbers of users in the mainframe dataset.

• Adobe

Adobe’s 2013 data breach is one of the oldest cybersecurity attacks that IT professionals still remember. It compromised more than 150 million user records. On top of all, hackers also stole information from three million encrypted credit cards of customers.

After this incident, Adobe took no chances and improved its cybersecurity parameters. Cybersecurity researchers and experts concur that the Adobe hack had compromised debit and as well as credit information of millions of users. In 2016, Adobe paid $1 million as part of the settlement to customers who had lost their debit and credit card information.

2021 and Cybersecurity Breaches

2021 marks the start of a new decade and post-pandemic era. With more proliferation of networks, devices, and the internet, it is crucial for organizations to avail modern cybersecurity solutions and seek the expertise of IT professionals to run secure business operations.

Final Thoughts

Despite cybersecurity attacks, you can expect to see more growth in the cybersecurity and IT sectors. More companies are now at the forefront to protect their valuable data and systems from potential data theft, unauthorized access, and cyber attacks.

Of course, cybersecurity shortcomings will always exist, but government institutions and organizations have a unique opportunity to roll out advanced cybersecurity solutions. In 2021, there are more regulatory penalties and governed laws that safeguard consumers’ privacy. So, it is essential for companies to not relapse into traditional cybersecurity tactics or solutions that may lead to data loss and impact consumer confidence.