Online Security Breaches that Shook Up Mega Corporations

2016 may well go down in history as one of the most significant for online security breaches. Some of the world’s biggest companies, organizations and political parties have either been hacked, denied access to their own systems or fallen victim to sophisticated phishing scams. It’s little wonder then that improving online security is high on everyone’s agenda.

In our previous blog post, welooked at 5 examples of security breaches, including the US election campaign, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Three and MySpace. In this post, we are highlighting5 more of the biggest breaches of the year 2016.

2016 is Now Famous for… BIG Cyber Security Breaches!

As IT security specialists, we advise and guide big and small organizations alike; and we know that no one is immune to the potential of falling victim to issues such as hacking, phishing or the use of malware.

The world witnessed many large online security fiascos in 2016. Here are 5 more:

1. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security: Proving that even the world’s top crime fighters can be the victim of cyber crime, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security were threatened by hackers who eventually dumped the records of some 30,000 staff members. Records included personal information, with names and contact details. The hackers claimed they had access to files totallinga whopping 200GB.

2. Seagate: This leading data storage firm ended up falling prey to a phishing scam. A leak of tax documentation on all current and past employees came about because one employee clicked on a link in a phishing email, believing that it was a genuine internal company message. That led to the breach with details including social security numbers and salaries being leaked.

3. 21^st Century Oncology: Information belonging to 2.2 million cancer patients of this insurance provider across every US state and globally was accessed. Hackers managed to access a database which contained extensive medical information, including names, social security numbers, the name of their doctor, what their diagnosis was, treatment undertaken, and insurance details.

4. Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital: The hospital was one of a number of medical organizations to fall victim to a cyber security attack. Hackers see hospitals as easy targets because they cannot afford to have any downtime in their system if they are to ensure the safety of their patients. The Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital was so desperate to regain access to files locked by malware that it paid $17,000 in ransom money!

5. Ukraine Power Grid: Ukraine suffered a massive power outage when phishers broke into the country’s utility network. Attackers managed to cause a blackout in Western Ukraine in a hacking mission which they had been planning for six months.

The above are just a handful of the cyber attacks to have hit the world news headlines in 2016, highlighting the need to take online security very seriously. Anyone concerned about whether their own systems are secure can visit our services pages, or book a personalized consultation to discuss methods of preventing a cyber security breach by protecting online information.