A Look at the Biggest Cyber Attacks in History
Hey folks
So I was chatting with a colleague yesterday and we somehow ended up talking about biggest cyber attacks in history that really made people sit up and go okay this is serious.
And honestly when you start looking back at them some of them are just plain wild. Like not just from a technical side but the ripple effect they caused across industries and sometimes even countries.
I thought maybe I’ll just list a few that stuck with me the most and why they still matter today.
What Are the Biggest Cyber Attacks in History?
The upcoming section discusses what was the biggest cyber attack ever. So, just continue read and know more about these cyber-attacks with a lesson.
WannaCry
Date 12 May 2017
Ah this one. It just exploded.
WannaCry was ransomware and one of the biggest cyber attacks in history that spread across the globe like in a matter of hours. Hospitals in the UK were cancelling surgeries FedEx went down even rail systems were hit. All because of a vulnerability in Windows that had a patch. But loads of systems hadn’t updated.
I still remember the chaos it caused. IT teams pulling all nighters trying to stop the spread. Everyone is googling how to decrypt files. It was a mess.
Lesson updates are boring yeah but not doing them is worse trust me.
NotPetya
Date 27 June 2017
People first thought this was another ransomware like WannaCry. But it wasn’t about money. It was just built to destroy.
It hit Ukraine first but then just went everywhere. Maersk had to rebuild like thousands of servers from scratch. Some folks said they recovered using a single server that survived in a remote office somewhere. Imagine that.
Lesson backups matter. But also, where you store em matters even more.
Equifax Breach
Date disclosed 29 July 2017
This one still gives people nightmares. A credit bureau getting breached is already bad but Equifax had everything. Names birth dates addresses social security numbers…
And it was not some zero day. It was a known flaw in Apache Struts. The patch was out. Just not installed in time.
147 million people affected. So, this is also one of the biggest cyber attacks in history that’s nearly half the US population.
Lesson patch management isn’t sexy but it’s important. Like drink water eat veggies type of important.
SolarWinds
Date discovered 13 December 2020
Started around March 2020
This one felt like a spy movie. The attackers compromised updates for a tool called Orion used by SolarWinds and that tool was used by a lot of big names including US government agencies.
So every time someone updated their software they unknowingly installed a backdoor. It went unnoticed for months.
Lesson trust is tricky. Supply chains need watching too. Just cause a vendor is big doesn’t mean their security is perfect.
Colonial Pipeline
Date 7 May 2021
This attack was on fuel infrastructure in the US. The company had to shut down operations and people started panic buying petrol. Lines at gas stations were like it was the end of the world.
Attackers got in through stolen credentials. That’s it.
They asked for ransom. Company paid. Later some of it was recovered.
Lesson even basic stuff like account access can lead to huge problems. It’s not always about some high level exploit.
Read Similar: Learn How Cyber Criminals Plan Attack
Why we still talk about these?
Honestly, biggest cyber attacks in history are not just for the history lessons. Every single one of these had things that could’ve been prevented. Missed patches weak credentials bad backups no monitoring. Simple stuff really. But when you ignore it, things break.
You don’t need to have a hundred tools or a team of geniuses. Just do the small things right. Keep learning stay alert and don’t assume it won’t happen to you.
Alright that’s enough rambling from me for today. Just thought I’d share some of these because they’ve always stuck in my head. And if you’re in the field or just curious about this stuff feel free to share what moments or attacks made you stop and go wow okay that was serious.
Thanks for reading.