The 5 most important
cybersecurity events of the 2010
The decade is coming to an end, and it’s safe to say it has been the decade with the most significant technology expansions. From AI to cloud computing and big data, technology is taking control of our world. Things that 30 years ago only occurred on science fiction shows today seem perfectly normal.
But technology comes with its risks. If this has been the decade of technology, it has also been a decade of cybersecurity threats. Here we’ll take a look at the most critical data breaches and cyber-attacks of the last ten years.
Stuxnet
This was the first major cybersecurity event of the decade. A computer worm to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program. It was designed to kill off SCADA equipment the Iranians used for its nuclear enrichment processes, and the attack succeeded, taking off equipment in many places.
This was not the first, nor the last cyber attack launched by a State. However, it was one of the first few large-scale government cyberattacks and the first to catch worldwide attention.
PlayStation’s Hack
In 2011 Sony announced a group of hackers stole the details of around 77 million PSN users, including financial information. Today, considering other much larger hacks, the amount seems insignificant, but at the time, it was THE hacking.
Sony had to close PlayStation Network for almost a month to address the breach and guarantee it wouldn’t happen again, losing profits due to it. Even worse, users that suffered credit card fraud filed class-action lawsuits that made Sony lose even more money.
It led many companies to add in their Terms of Service a clause to forbid users from filing lawsuits on security breaches and also make them invest more in proper security.
Snowden
This is probably the best-known cybersecurity event of the decade. You know the story, Edward Snowden, a former NSA analyst, unveiled a global surveillance network led by the US after 9/11.
Snowden would face trial in the US, so he took refuge in Russia. His revelations led many countries such as China and Russia, to improve their surveillance operations and intelligence, which ironically led to increasing cyber-espionage in the world.
The DNC hack
In the spring of 2016, the DNC announced it had suffered a security breach that stole thousands of emails and documents from the committee’s servers. The servers were hacked by two Russian cyber-espionage groups, which led some to believe that Russian meddling started right there.
The data stolen dare was used for intelligence up that aimed to influence the results of the Presidential elections. It’s still hard to say to what point it succeeded, but as of today, this hack continues to produce headlines and investigations.
Facebook and Cambridge Analytica
People usually joked about Facebook surveilling the. However, the joke stopped being a joke in 2018 when the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke about, and everyone knew how Facebook was hoarding data from them. Data analytics companies such as CA were using FB user data with ease to create profiles and tendencies to sell to political parties and organizations to shape public opinion.