10 Worst Cyberattacks in 2012

Bangalore: When the world was too busy to catch up their breath from new technological launches be it iPhone 5, Windows 8, Gmail’s 10 GB attachments or serious inroads into cloud connectivity which enabled working on the go, there were other elements of the tech-world snarling to pounce.

Cybercriminals too evolved to deal with new technology growth and designed clever ways to sneak away millions from unsuspecting consumers through malicious links, phishing scams and password hacks. The big company’s like Amazon, LinkedIn and others too put to embarrassment.   

Cybercrime prevention company ThreatMetrix has put together an infographic detailing the top 10 spookiest cyberattacks of the year so far. "With threats looming everywhere from banks and web browsers to online dating and social networking sites, this list is sure to leave you with goosebumps," the company says.

#10 Yahoo Voices

A hacker group called D33DS Company has dumped 453,492 usernames and passwords obtained in plaintext from a Yahoo! Voice service, formally known as Associated Content.

The usernames and passwords were posted online by the D33DS Company group. Apparently, hackers were able to get their hands on plaintext list of passwords and usernames using a MySQL injection attack.

#9 Android

The leading mobile platform in the world and its Google play sports about 700,000 apps. For hackers Android was too tempting an apple to resist, the result: currently about 198 million Android users’ memory cards are at the risk of wiping out clean with a malicious link or from a malicious app. Earlier this year the hackers developed a fake version of Instagram app which sent expensive text messages from the users’ phones.

#8 Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. It is the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization. The bank’s website was recently hacked putting 70 million customers and 8.5 million active users’ data at risk.

Bank's Chief Financial Officer, Tim Sloan told Reuters that the cyber attacks were "pretty significant" but didn't cause customer losses or a major increase in expenses.

The group that calls itself the Cyber Fighters of Izz ad-din Al Qassam claimed credit for the attacks and said it to be a protest against the anti-Islam video posted on YouTube, reported Rueters.

#7 Amazon owned Zappos targeted

Zappos.com, the online shoe retailer owned by Amazon.com, got its internal network infiltrated by a cyber attacker.

More than 24 million customers personal information including: customers' names, e-mail addresses, billing and shipping addresses, phone numbers and the last four digits of customers’ credit card numbers were at hackers’ mercy.

However, database that stores customers' critical credit card and other payment data was not affected or accessed.

#6 Microsoft Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer got vulnerable to hackers when a security hole which was discovered in September. The hackers targeted some of the users by installing malicious software on Windows systems and had accessed personal.

The attacks prompted the German government and security experts to urge people to temporarily stop using the browser, reported IBN Live. 

However Microsoft acted fast and fixed a security bug in Internet Explorer.

#5 Global Data Inc (Visa and Master Card)

Hackers breached data card processing systems and were successful in getting 1.5 million card numbers. However names, addresses and other data which could have led to massive money drain out, was not stolen. It was a very narrow escape.

#4 LinkedIn And eHormany

The professionals’ social networking siteLinkedIn and online dating site eHarmony were been hacked, about 64 million LinkedIn passwords were put at risk and about 30,000 passwords were cracked. About 1.5 million eHORMONY passwords were stolen and posted on an online password cracking forum. These combined attacks put the personal information of the million at risk.    

#3 Go Daddy

Go Daddy, the domain registrar and Web hosting firm, with more than 53 million registered domain names had suffered major outages following a major cyber attack, which potentially would have taken millions of sites down with it. The activist group Anonymous later claimed the responsibility however Go Daddy denied it. But it did result in many firms going for Go Daddy for a domain registration though.

#2 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Thousands of employees of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had their Social Security numbers, bank-routing information and addresses exposed in a cyber breach of an internal computer database, reported Bloomberg. It compromised 8000 employees’ and others’ social security numbers and banking information.

#1 Gostshell

An Anonymous-related group, Ghostshell leaked 120,000 records from the top universities by injecting malware and vulnerable links.