Success Stories

Cyberattacks have become a common threat now

Cyberattacks have become a common threat now and while it is definitely one of the scariest and most dangerous things to happen, there are also many tools, companies and resources to help shield us from these attacks and funny how over two decades ago, it wasn’t a widely discussed topic.

True to fact, the first mass cyberattack that was ever recorded was not even an attack that was planned. Have you ever wanted to be of help to someone but instead just wound creating more damage and trouble to them with no intention? Well, that’s exactly what happened in the case of Robert Tappan Morris. He was a Cornell University graduate student, who in 1988, developed a program to assess the size of the internet. He designed it to crawl the web, install itself on computers and just count the number of copies it had made. The tallied numbers thus would have given the number of computers connected to the internet. But unfortunately for Morris, things didn’t go as planned. 

Firstly, the problem started arising with accuracy. mistakenly, Morris made a command that made the worm install itself on a computer, every 1 of 7 times, even if the computer already claimed that it had the program. Every time the worm installed itself, the computers that are infected would become further debilitated until they eventually crashed. It was actually the first known Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. Ironically, it was all by accident. So in total, it was estimated that around 6000 computers that constituted 10% of the entire internet at that time were compromised by this attack. The cost of repairing the effects caused by the worm came up to an estimated $100,000 and $1,000,000 which is adjusted to inflation as $201,000 and $2,900,000 approximately.  Morris was then arrested and charged with the violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and his sentence included several fines along with three years of probation and community service.

Another unforgettable recent notorious cyberattacks was that of the SolarWinds attacks that compromised many Government agencies, the recovery from which is still ongoing and popularly described as one of the most powerful attacks against a government

A state-sponsored hacking campaign compromised a vast number of U.S. government agencies through a U.S. tech company as a springboard. It is observed as yet the largest and most sophisticated cyberattack the world has ever seen. This operation breached software made by SolarWinds Corp, helped hackers gain access to the thousands of companies and many government offices that were clients. 

While cyberattacks started as a mistake, they have now become an effect of our mistakes. Data breaches happen to businesses and individuals everyday. We are sometimes tricked or we fall into the trap of amazing advertisements and offers. In our recent past, a reputable education website Edmodo.com was attacked in May 2017 and 77 million user accounts were exposed and whereas in March 2017, a close-knit gaming site, Rune.live was hacked to expose 9618 user accounts. This just reiterates the fact that everyone is at risk.

It also indicates that every data is valid and valued. Passwords, names, mail ids, personal identity information can be sold and bought in the darkest corners of the darknet. It becomes completely our sole responsibility to protect our data, as an individual, as a company, as a nation.

We have to ensure we have great security in place and also be ready with a prompt disaster recovery plan just in case something goes wrong. We must explore and find out what tools are available out there to protect your business from a cyberattack. Ensuring that systems are daily monitored and an alert is always put out in case of an anomaly is important. XXXX provides you with the best cybersecurity plans that are tailor made for your business and shields you and your customer’s data with all the security you need.

Via: blog.aansystems.com