Earlier this week, I reported on cyber attacks and those who fight to prevent them. So that got me thinking: What are the worst cyber crimes and cyber attacks of all time?
10. The LA Traffic Light Attack: In 2006, Los Angeles, CA traffic engineers went on strike, The perfect opportunity for two hackers to lengthen red lights and further?snarl traffic in a city that’s notorious for crawling. Two disgruntle engineers were eventually sentenced to probation.
9. Mafia Boy: In 2000, 15-year-old Michael Calce slowed down?and interfered?with?web traffic. He did this to major sites, like?CNN and Yahoo, even ?caused security concerns in the White House.?Mafia Boy?shed light on how easy it was for anyone to attack any site anytime.
8. FBI Virus: In 2012, this virus wouldn’t let victims go until it paid at least $200. It’s scary because it’s dressed up to look life a federal site, but it isn’t. One analyst said 40 percent of CP repair issues have to deal with this virus. I don’t know how much money this malware ripped off, but this virus was universal and sly!
7. Citigroup Attack: In 2011, this mega bank lost 2.7 million dollars and over 200,000 customers’ personal info to thieves. The fact it happened to an international bank reminds us nobody is safe!
6. Conficker: Perhaps the most overrated worm of all time. Okay, so it did infect tens of millions of systems, and?survived a lot of destruction attempts. But I put it on this list because of the media hype and fear this?worm produced. I like to call it ‘The virus that cried wolf’.
5. TJ?Maxx and Marshalls: This Massachusetts??bases retail chain had 45 million debit and credit cards compromised. This super data breached cost TJ Maxx and company over a quarter billion dollars.
4. Albert Gonzales: He was part of the TJ Maxx?scheme, as well as?hacking into Hannaford Brothers Supermarket,?Dave and Busters and 7-11. He and his gang compromised over 100 million debit/credit cards worldwide. He won the longest?ever prison term for hacking: 17-25 years.
3. Max Vision:??He was a security researcher who crossed over to the dark side.?In 2006,?he created?one of the largest cyber criminal?markets of all time with 6,000 members! His organization, Carders Market, compromised 2 million?accounts and?ripped?approximately $86 million dollars.
2.?Epsilon: This marketing and email handling service for banks like JP Morgan was hacked in 2011. Some estimated up to $4 billion dollars was stolen. Fortunately, more emails than cards were compromised, so it could be far less.
1. Original Logic Bomb: Never heard of this one? It occurred in 1982, long before the Web as we know it. During Cold War tensions, the US blew up a Soviet Siberian gas pipe line. This burst caused technological and natural chaos. It also demonstrated the power of hacking years before most ever heard of the word.
If you know of ay cool cyber attacks worthy of this list, we’d love to hear from you.