The 12 biggest hacker attacks in the world

Hackers operate on the vastness of the Internet incessantly. However, only some of their attacks become valid large and legendary. It's time to take a look at some historical hacks.

Hacking Ashley Madison 2015: 37 million users

A group of hackers, known as the Impact Team, hacked the servers of Ashley Madison and stole personal data of 37 million users. After that, hackers published the information they received on various websites. The blackened reputation of users has had an effect all over the world, including messages that users ended their lives with suicide because of the hack. This hacking was remembered not only because this act was public, but also because hackers won fame of fighters against infidelity and lies.

Conficker virus 2008: still infects millions of computers annually

Despite the fact that this powerful virus program has not caused irreparable damage, it still refuses to die. She is constantly hiding, and at the first opportunity copied to other machines. But even more frightening is that this virus continues to open the back doors on infected computers for further hacker attacks. This virus replicates and spreads to various computers where it hides in the shadows, simultaneously turning your computer into a bot for sending spam or by reading your credit card information and your passwords, then forwarding these data to hackers. This virus is a very clever computer program. It deactivates your antivirus to protect itself. He is so famous for how persistently he continues to exist and how widely he has spread. Eight years after he was discovered, he still travels the Internet.

2010 Stuxnet virus: Iran's nuclear program is blocked

This virus program, which weighed less than one megabyte, was launched into a network of Iranian nuclear plants. When the virus reached the destination, it took control of the entire system. Then he ordered five thousand uranium centrifuges to spin without control, stop suddenly, and then start spinning again, sending out reports in parallel that everything is in order. This chaotic manipulation lasted for 17 months, forcing the plants to live their own lives, and workers and scientists to doubt their own mind. And throughout this time no one knew what was going on. The insidious and secretive attack did more harm than if these centrifuges were simply destroyed. The virus led thousands of experts on the wrong path for a year and a half, spending thousands of hours of work and uranium resources estimated at millions of dollars. This hack was remembered both in scope and in cunning: the virus attacked the country's nuclear program, which was in a state of conflict with the United States and other world powers, and he deceived thousands of scientists for one and a half years while he secretly performed his dirty task.

Home Depot Hijacking in 2014: Over 50 Million Credit Cards

Using the password of one of the chain store sellers, hackers were able to steal the largest amount of credit card data in history. Using gaps in Microsoft's operating system, hackers could infiltrate servers before Microsoft attempted to close these gaps. Once they were able to get to the first store in Miami, the hackers began to operate across the continent. They watched transactions in 7,000 cash registers of this network. They collected credit card data, as users made purchases in these stores. This Hakre attack was remembered by the fact that it was directed against a powerful corporation and millions of its trusted clients.

Spamhaus 2013: the largest DDOS attack in history

DDOS-attack is, as a matter of fact, a data stream. Using dozens of computers that repeat the same signal with a high frequency and at a high noise level, hackers literally flood and overload computer systems on the Internet. In March 2013, this particular DDOS attack was so great that it slowed the work of the entire Internet around the world, and completely disconnected it in some parts of the world for hours.

Hacking eBay 2014: 145 million users

Many say that this was the biggest breach of public trust in the history of online business. However, others say that it was much less sad than mass theft, since only personal data was leaked, not financial information. Regardless of where you decide to look at this incident, millions of buyers on the Internet have lost their data, which have been password-protected. This hack is especially memorable, as it turned out to be incredibly public, and also because eBay in this situation was described as a service with a very weak security system, and also very slowly and inadequately reacting to the situation.

JPMorgan Chase cracking in 2014: 83 million bank accounts

In 2014, Russian hackers broke the largest bank in the United States and stole data from 7 million small business bank accounts and 76 million personal bank accounts. Hackers penetrated into 90 computers of the bank and viewed personal information of users of accounts from them.

The Melissa virus of 1999: 20 percent of computers in the world were infected

A man from New Jersey released a macro virus on the Internet, where he penetrated computers with Windows operating systems. This virus was disguised as an attached Word file with the title "Important message from (person's name)". As soon as the user clicked on this attached message, the virus activated and ordered the computer to copy this virus as a mass mailing for the first fifty contacts.

LinkedIn cracking, opened in 2016: 164 million accounts

This hacking, which only four years after it happened, was remembered by the fact that the largest social network for employees had to recognize the loss of data of 117 million users, which were then resold on the black market. This hack is significant because of how much time it took for the company to understand that it was hacked. Four years is quite a long time to realize that you were robbed.

Hacking Anthem Health Care 2015: 78 million users

The databases of the second-largest medical insurer in the United States of America were undercovered for several weeks. The details of the penetration were not disclosed, but the company states that the medical information was not stolen. Hackers managed to steal only contact information and social security numbers.

Hacking of the Sony Playstation network in 2011: 77 million users

In April 2011, a group of hackers called Lulzsec hacked into the Sony database on the Playstation network, posting the contact information, logins and passwords of 77 million players. Sony states that the credit card data was not stolen. The company suspended the service for several days to improve the security system and patch holes.

Hacking Global Payments 2012: 110 million credit cards

Global Payments is one of the largest companies engaged in transactions of creditors and suppliers. She specializes in small business. In 2012, the system of this company was hacked by hackers who stole information about credit cards. With some cards, data about which were stolen, then illegal transactions were made.