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Tremendous cyber-attack affects almost a hundred countries over the world

One of the worst cyber-attacks this year!

The U.K. was subject to a horrific mass cyber-attack in May 2017 that ground several health providers to a halt.

Chaos and frenzied panic set in when GP surgeries and hospital screens were locked with a ransom demand. Hackers had managed to infiltrate network systems with malicious ransomware, preventing access to records unless the user paid $300 (£240) worth of Bitcoins into a provided account.
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Colossal NHS cyber-hack attacks systems, forcing hospitals to move emergency patients

The NHS are being held to ransom after a huge cyber-attack has thrown IT and phone systems in to chaos.

As the networking system has been crippled by malicious software, huge amounts of IT systems have been shut down to prevent further damage, seriously impacting the level of care the NHS can provide.

Cyber criminals are reportedly holding the network systems hostage for an undisclosed sum while watching the nation’s health service struggle to cope. Physicians are understood to be using pen and paper to made medical notes, and real lives are in real danger.
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Justice is served: Two men plead guilty for TalkTalk cyber attack

On the 22^nd October 2015, telecommunications company TalkTalk suffered a huge cyber-attack. The result was some 157,000 of their customers’ personal details being breached, and this included 16,000 bank details being accessed.

The case has been somewhat concluded now as two men have pleaded guilty to the attack. At the Old Bailey courthouse, Matthew Hanley and Douglas Allsopp pleaded guilty to several offences.
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Cyber-attacks increased by 300% in 2016

Top digital security provider Gemalto released a Breach Level Index (BLI) report on cyber-attacks and compromised data records in 2016. They found a total of 1,792 data breaches last year alone, leading to around 1.378 billion data records being illegally accessed.

Since 2013, over 7 billion data records have reportedly been stolen across the globe. And these are just the ones that have been reported. To break this number down, this equals to:

• 4,501,854 records lost or stolen every day
• 187,577 every hour
• 3,126 every minute
• 52 every second.

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IoT (Internet of Things) devices still vulnerable to cyber-attacks

Over the years, technology has been expanding and digital devices are on the upward trend. The idea of connecting a device to every aspect of the home or office for instance has been appealing to many.

Technology enthusiasts have coined the name Internet of Things (IoT) for these kinds of devices which are connected to the internet allowing them to correspond with each other… An example of this would be telling your device to switch the light on or off.
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“SMEs reportedly not prepared for cyber-attacks” – More and more SMEs are subject to cyber-attacks and are worryingly not prepared for them

Amongst all the ‘high-profile’ data breaches like Yahoo and TalkTalk, there isn’t a lot of media coverage surrounding small-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the data breaches they’re guilty of.

However, SMEs should remain vigilant as there is a rise in cyber-hacks in recent years, with cyber-criminals targeting small businesses just as much as the larger ones.

The legislation affects us all, so no one can hide from it – no matter your size!
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Ripples from the 2013 Target data breach

Data breaches have been on an upward rise for as long as I can remember, and the Target breach back in December 2013 was a part of that trend.

Between 27 November and 15 December 2013, U.S. retailer Target was subject to one of the biggest hacks that the industry has seen. Around 40 million customers’ credit/debit card information was breached; 70 million customer records were stolen; 1 to 3 million cards were sold and used in fraudulent transactions; £163 million was spent on reissuing cards that were compromised; and an estimated £46.8 million went straight into the cyber-criminals’ pockets. Monumental!
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ThyssenKrupp’s trade secrets stolen in cyber-hack

One of the largest global steel manufacturers, ThyssenKrupp, has revealed that their company has been hit by cyber-hackers and may have had sensitive trade secrets stolen.

In February last year, cyber-hackers gained access to the German manufacturer’s computer system and managed to go undetected for three months. It wasn’t until April that ThyssenKrupp’s internal security team detected the hack. According to the manufacturer’s spokesperson, the management board was informed “at once” and he notes that the hack was detected quite quickly.
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Cyber-attackers may leak data instead of just encrypting it!

There is a new threat of cybersecurity on the horizon, as cyber-attackers aren’t just encrypting data for ransoms, but may threaten to publish it for ransom payments, security experts warn.

From the sharp rise of cyber-attacks in recent years, internet users have learned to be wary. However, this has been met with the vicious growth of various techniques of cyber-attacks, which are becoming smarter and smarter. This new tactic will be sure to scare some in to paying up!
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Cyber-attack in East Yorkshire caused customers to be without internet for four days

U.K. telecom provider KCOM Group has blamed cyber-attackers for causing customers to be without internet over a period of four days recently.

Some customers report that they’re still having difficulties accessing the internet, which reportedly caused over a thousand customers to be disconnected from the internet.

The telecom provider said the root of the issue was down to cyber-attackers accessing customers’ broadband routers.
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