2020 has been a year, which has seen an increase in the number of cyber-attacks worldwide. These cyber-attacks were not simply corporate breaches, which still occurred. Still, instead, they targeted global targets as well as US election affiliates and other significant targets meant to affect government agencies and to collect a ransom. Here are five significant cyber-attacks of 2020.
Ransomware Attacks
Throughout 2020 ransomware has swamped thousands of targets worldwide, including public utilities and corporations. These attacks have affected the National Health Services and other global targets. There was an increase in attacks from international hackers in September of 2020 in several key world government and commerce areas.
Most ransomware malware has flaws making it easier for cybersecurity to identify and stop the attack. In some cases, the attacked corporations and agencies paid the ransom. In other cases, the attacks were stopped; however, the hackers have learned from past mistakes. They are becoming more sophisticated, cybersecurity agencies and government sectors are continuously evolving to match this sophistication to keep companies and government agencies safe from ransomware attacks.
Shadow Brokers
Shadow brokers is a hacking group, which initially came to limelight in 2016. They claim to have penetrated the spy tool of NSA linked operation called the Equation group. They initially provided a sample of NSA data and then tried to auction a more significant trove. The most impactful release by shadow brokers came in April of 2016 when they brought out a Windows exploit known as EternalBlue acquired from the NSA. They planned two high profile cyber-attacks using ransomware as a tool.
The identity of this group still seems to be unknown. Still, they intend to gather intelligence data by using bugs in commercial products. Agencies usually keep the flaws to themselves, instead of telling the vendors so they can fix it. This silence can lead to a dangerous situation as all the customers using the software can be affected. Though they have not made any direct claims, some 2020 cyber-attacks resemble previous attacks by the group who may be operating today.
Us Healthcare Cyber-Attack
American healthcare firm Universal Health Systems sustained a ransomware attack that caused affected hospitals to revert to manual backups, divert ambulances, and reschedule surgeries. There was no indication of the origins of the hackers. The quick action of reverting to manual backups avoided catastrophe; however, there was a significant financial hit in the Universal Health Systems.
NATO and NATO Involved Countries
Russian hackers targeted government agencies in NATO member countries and nations who cooperate with NATO. The campaign uses NATO training material as bait for a phishing scheme that infects target computers with malware that creates a persistent backdoor. The Russian hackers successfully disrupted NATO during the COVID-19 pandemic and exposed vulnerabilities NATO thought they had defenses against. There is no report on the full damage of the Russian hacker attacks on NATO, but NATO cybersecurity changes are expected following this attack.
2020 Election Cyber Attacks Through Microsoft
Microsoft detected cyber-attacks targeting people and organizations involved in the presidential election. These attacks included unsuccessful attacks on people associated with both the Trump and Biden campaigns. These unsuccessful but pointed attacks included people connected to both the Biden and Trump campaigns. Microsoft immediately reacted, stating the following, “We have and will continue to defend our democracy against these attacks through notifications of such activity to impacted customers, security features in our products and services, and legal and technical disruptions. The activity we are announcing today makes clear that foreign activity groups have stepped up their efforts targeting the 2020 election as had been anticipated and is consistent with what the US government and others have reported. We also report here on attacks against other institutions and enterprises worldwide that reflect similar adversary activity.”
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