FX.co ★ Top 5 biggest cyber attacks and information leaks in first half of 2020

Dating apps data breach

In May this year, internet privacy researchers Noam Rotem and Ran Locar discovered a huge data breach in the system of nine dating apps. The information leak exposed at least 845 GB of users’ personal details, including 2.5 million photographs, various receipts for payments, and dating app records. Ascertaining the identity of users, cybercriminals could have easily used this data for blackmail. 3Somes, Cougary, Gay Daddy Bear, Xpal, BBW Dating, Casualx, SugarD, Herpes Dating, and GHunt were among the nine services that exposed personal info of its users. As it turned out later, all these dating apps came from the same source - Cheng Du New Tech Zone. Nevertheless, the security researchers emphasized that this was not a hack but a sloppily stored data.

Australia cyber attacks

In June, a series of hacker attacks was mounted on Australia’s public and private sectors. Throughout the entire month, cybercriminals terrorized the country. The Prime Minister of Australia made a very loud statement about the incident. However, he refused to publicly accuse anyone of cyber hacks. Meanwhile, Australian local media blamed China. The Chinese authorities asked their Australian counterparts not to leap to hasty conclusions. However, the already strained relations between the two countries had deteriorated further. As a result, Australia decided to allocate some $930 million for protection against cyber threats.

BlueLeaks

The United States remains hackers’ most favorite target. Thus, members of Anonymous, a decentralized online community, were among those who leaked a 269 GB collection of police data, including emails, audio, video, and intelligence documents. The records were published by DDoSecrets in June this year. The attack was called “BlueLeaks”, while the information exposed offered insight into how police tracked and arrested protesters.

Russian trace

Another major cyber attack occurred in the United States in May. This time, hackers hijacked mail servers of the National Security Agency. The NSA saw a Russian trace behind this criminal act and publicly accused the Russian hacker group known as Sandworm of exploiting email server Exim. The National Security Agency found a vulnerability in Exim’s activity a year ago. However, the malfunction has been solved only recently and after the assault launched by cybercriminals. Thus, attackers could send a malicious email to the server immediately gaining the ability to run code on the server remotely.

Iranian cyberwarfare

In January 2020, the general of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed by US troops in Iraq, followed by another massive cyber attack on the United States. First, Iran responded to the assassination of their leader by launching missiles on US air bases in Iraq. A few days later, Iranian hackers tried to get access to American electric utilities, as well as oil and gas companies. In fact, Iran’s act of revenge was far from being over. According to Google, in early June, members of Charming Kitten, the Iranian hacking group, targeted the presidential campaign of the current US president. Nevertheless, these attempts were unsuccessful.