Large Criminal Attacks 2010 – 2015

Update 2015: The following are about half of some hacks I wrote about over the years. I have included some of the top ones and condensed down what I did write. This is more for historical records as I import the data into the new server.

== June 2015 US Gov Hacked ==

When someone goes for a security clearance, they go through the office of personnel management (OPM). Naturally when one applies for such a position, lots of PI, like socials, finger prints, job history, arrest records and so on is collected. Now that’s the case for 21 million Americans who have just lost their data to crackers out of China.

== March 2014 BitCoint – Mount Gox ==

A few months ago, we had a new guy start that came from a finance background. All of us were excited, as he could explain many of the key economic ideas of this new BitCoin currency. After his pitch, we were all about half sold, and I put down 80.00 and got my coin, stored it in my wallet, and promptly lost the keys. My main problem with these decentralized currencies is the inability to hold anyone accountable. That’s what I am waking up to see. The largest crypto exchange is now down, with no one is able to withdraw their money. Claims of at least $400 million gone and $100 million missing. There is going to be a lot of mad people. The compromises grow bigger.

== 2013 Tumblr!! ==

I toyed with the idea of using Tumblr in the past as a blogging platform. I honestly like the layout and how one can save photos or memes etc. But here we go again with a poorly designed site, losing the data of it’s users. This time an innocent 65,469,298 people had their e-mails and passwords compromised. We as software developers must do better! Users must demand secure software.

== June 2011 Linked In ==

Personal this time! LinkedIn is hacked and 6.5 million accounts have been leaked. Every other month, a larger hack than the last is being reported. When will these companies start taking our data seriously and securing it.

== April 2011 Bank of America (BOA) ==

What a compromise occurred this month. BoA had 85,000 credit cards stolen. Data compromises are getting bigger and bigger.

== June 2010 StuxNet ==

The StuxNet w0rm targets 4 0-day vulnerabilities in Windows and was purportedly developed by Israel and/or the United States. It appears this virus compromised Iranian Nuclear facilities, specifically SCADA and PLC systems, ultimately collecting information on these industrial systems and causing the fast-spinning centrifuges to rip themselves apart. Of little known fact is many of these type of SCADA and PLC systems can be found unprotected right on the Internet.