FX.co ★ Top 7 cyberattacks and data breaches of 2019

Lazarus is a cybercriminal group, reportedly backed by the North Korea’s government, which attacks organizations in Japan, South Korea, and other countries. All in all, the Lazarus Group has conducted successful operations across 11 countries, including Russia. Notably, it was the first time when Lazarus hackers had targeted Russian companies. Its sub-group, Bluenoroff, is believed to be responsible for these attacks. The grouping is known for its cyberattacks for the sake of gaining profit. Thus, Bluenoroff is notorious for its attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment server in 2014. Moreover, the hackers stole $81 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh in 2016 and millions of dollars from cryptocurrency exchanges. Lazarus was also involved in the WannaCry attack.

Chinese hackers broke into the systems of more than 10 companies and stole huge amounts of personal and corporate data. It was reported that attackers targeted companies in more than 30 countries, gathering information on individuals in government, law-enforcement, and politics. Notably, the hacking operation was launched 7 years ago. Although the hackers failed to get direct access to the records of telephone conversations and text messages, they could still collect data on phone calls.

Cybercriminals have also compromised one of the ECB websites, the so called Banks’ Integrated Reporting Dictionary (BIRD), which is used to provide bank employees with information on how to produce statistical and supervisory reports. Hackers were aiming at personal data of the BIRD subscribers, including email addresses, names, and titles.

Right before another round of trade talks between the US and China, a pro-government Chinese group of hackers attacked the US National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). It seems that Beijing was desperate to get any information about the meeting between Donald Trump and NAP President Jay Timmons. Obviously, China was going to win the trade war at any cost.

Recently, a data breach in the US Customs and Border Protection system has led to the leak of travelers’ photos and license plate information. Thus, cybercriminals got access to personal data of more than a million people entering the United States, including the time of arrival, their passport details, personal photos, and vehicle registration plate numbers. Notably, the agency processes information of millions of travelers every day.

Another Chinese hacking group APT10 became widely known due to their attacks on foreign companies. The group used phishing techniques to obtain data about employees of various companies and then with the help of the malware stole intellectual property. In addition, APT3 sub-grouping used cyberweapons stolen from the US National Security Agency to carry out cyber attacks on organizations across the globe. Hackers managed to adapt and modify a tool known as EternalRomance which is used by cybercriminals to remotely adjust code of the processor core on attacked computers.

More than 1.2 billion users of such social networks as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the Github became victims of a hacker attack. Almost 622 million emails, 50 million phone numbers as well as employment history records were found exposed online and were easily accessible on an unsecured server. According to the Wired, the database, however, did not contain any sensitive information about credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and account passwords.