Famous companies that were victims of hackers. What mistakes did they make?

Did you know that any business, no matter how big, is built on a very thin foundation called cyber security? Almost everything we know works with servers with huge databases, and a digital security attack can shake the foundations of any company, no matter how big, in as many seconds as it takes a click. It happens for everyone is focused on making a profit and growing and no longer has time to think about the scenario in which the foundation would be compromised.

Just as you can’t go on vacation without making sure you’ve locked your home, so you need to limit all the ways in which hackers could compromise your business. Make sure your application or site is protected 24 hours a day using the services of profesional hosting .

What does cybersecurity mean?

Also called digital security, it is a set of processes, practices, and protocols that protect digital information, devices, and assets. These can be personal data of employees or customers, bank accounts or various platforms with which you carry out your daily work, various photos or files.

Security depends on the implementation of specialized tools developed by Netwise to monitor the volume and sources of traffic to prevent vulnerabilities.

How might cybercriminals affect your business?

There are countless ways in which your business could be compromised, and new ones appear every second.

A digital criminal can:

  • să preia controlul sau să blocheze activitatea computerelor și a dispozitivelor electronice utilizând programe malware
  • să fure, să altereze sau să distrugă bazele de date și proprietatea intelectuală pentru a obține anumite beneficii
  • să distribuie conținut ilegal și informații false în numele companiei tale

Solution isperiodic testing network or internal infrastructure to identify vulnerabilities in the work system. Thus, attackers with access to infrastructure cannot destabilize your activity.

Who can stand behind a cyber attack?

In principle, anyone with the necessary resources (access, technology, knowledge) can try to sabotage your business. There are attackers who take advantage of the freedom that the internet offers and aim to compromise as much database and device data as possible. Most often, however, companies are attacked from within, by employees or partners.

Cyberattacks are not just for small businesses. There are many examples of business giants who have proven to be vulnerable. We have selected four of the best known.

LINKEDIN – LinkedIn suffered its first serious attack in 2012, but this was not officially confirmed until 2016 or even then on the scale of the disaster. Then, the email addresses and passwords of about 165 million LinkedIn users were sold and posted on a Russian forum for 5 bitcoins, or about $ 2,000 at the time.

A massive “leak” of information took place in April 2021, when another batch of information with data of over 500 million accounts was put up for auction by hackers.

In June 2021 it happened again and this time the scandal was resounding. From the huge network of the network were extracted and published on a “dark web” forum the professional data of over 700 million users, ie over 90% of users. The data obtained includes the full names of users, email addresses, telephone numbers and information about education and professional history, physical addresses, login details and other social media accounts.

While LinkedIn representatives have made sure that no sensitive data has been disclosed, digital security experts have confirmed that this data is particularly important and can be used in criminal proceedings.

FACEBOOK – Since its inception, Facebook has been involved in several scandals related to hacker attacks on databases and leakage of user data. The first security breach occurred in December 2005, when researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a script that could download information held by the social networking platform and easily gain access to the personal data of more than 70,000 users.

In the summer of 2013, the data of over six million accounts were compromised, due to an “error” of the Facebook platform, which exposed the information. The hackers immediately took advantage of what was offered to them on the tray.

In April 2019, it was revealed that two Facebook databases had been compromised. Information from more than 530 million Facebook users in 106 countries, including data such as phone numbers, account names, and networking IDs, has been revealed. More than 90 million people have been disconnected from the network and forced to reconnect.

On April 3, 2021, it happened again. The data of over 500,000 users ended up in the wrong hands. The founder said that this leak was related to the 2019 attack, but the security problem has been fixed for a long time.

UBER – Uber’s first serious problem started in 2014, when there was an illegal access to the database. The attackers used an AWS passkey that was publicly posted on GitHub and obtained information that included 100,000 driver names, driver’s license numbers, physical addresses, and e-mail addresses.

In 2016, the giant transport company was the victim of another cyber attack that revealed the personal data of over 600,000 drivers and 57 million customers. These included names, email addresses, phone numbers, and travel history.

According to Bloomberg, the company’s representatives allegedly paid about $ 100,000 to the hackers in order not to reveal anything about the security breach and to delete the data they obtained illegally.

Former Uber security chief Joe Sullivan was charged with obstruction of justice in August 2020 and sentenced to eight years in prison.

BRITISH AIRWAYS – In 2018, British Airways faced an attack in which the data of more than 420,000 passengers were stolen. Key bank card details were revealed for 380,000 of them.

Information was leaked to people, such as login details and booking details, names, physical addresses and email addresses.

In terms of banking data, digital criminals have come up with all the information they need to use remote credit cards, such as ID numbers, expiration dates and three-digit CVV codes. The verdict given by the investigators was poor computer security.

What are the main problems of the companies?

In the experience of over 7 years, Netwise has established that the main problems that make companies vulnerable are:

  • Gestionarea defectuoasă a parolelor
  • Erorile umane sunt cauza a peste un sfert din toate breșele de securitate. 
  • Vulnerabilități ale tehnologiei

How do you protect your company from hacker attacks?

The solutions to the most common problems that sites face are simpler than you think.

  • Controlează activitatea angajaților
  • Schimbă parolele regulat
  • Actualizează regulat platformele de lucru
  • Folosește parole puternice, diferite pentru fiecare cont
  • Nu permite acces oricui la datele electronice valoroase 
  • Folosește un serviciu de hosting care să poată detecta și preveni amenințările de securitate, fie că este vorba despre aplicațiile și site-uri

Netwise provides professional cybersecurity analysis solutions that ensure the optimal operation of online processes even for high-traffic sites, applications and blogs with a high volume of content.

For your online business to grow safely, it is a wise decision to use services such as:

  • Administrarea serverelor cloud sau on-prem
  • Proiectarea și construirea optimă a cloud-ului
  • Migrare în cloud sau eficientizarea consumului de resurse
  • Monitorizarea și logarea eficientă a servelor și serviciilor
  • Securitate cibernetică: prevenire – detecție – răspuns

The decision to shelter your business with the protection tools developed over the years by the cybersecurity specialists from Netwise can make the difference for your business.

Did you know that any business, no matter how big, is built on a very thin foundation called cyber security? Almost everything we know works with servers with huge databases, and a digital security attack can shake the foundations of any company, no matter how big, in as many seconds as it takes a click. It happens for everyone is focused on making a profit and growing and no longer has time to think about the scenario in which the foundation would be compromised.
Just as you can’t go on vacation without making sure you’ve locked your home, so you need to limit all the ways in which hackers could compromise your business. Make sure your application or website is protected 24 hours a day using professional hosting services.
What does cybersecurity mean?
Also called digital security, it is a set of processes, practices, and protocols that protect digital information, devices, and assets. These can be personal data of employees or customers, bank accounts or various platforms with which you carry out your daily work, various photos or files.
Security depends on the implementation of specialized tools developed by Netwise to monitor the volume and sources of traffic to prevent vulnerabilities.
How might cybercriminals affect your business?
There are countless ways in which your business could be compromised, and new ones appear every second.
A digital offender can:
take control or block the activity of computers and electronic devices using malware
to steal, alter or destroy databases and intellectual property in order to obtain certain benefits
distribute illegal content and false information on behalf of your company
The solution is to periodically test the network or internal infrastructure to identify vulnerabilities in the work system. Thus, attackers with access to infrastructure cannot destabilize your activity.
Who can stand behind a cyber attack?
In principle, anyone with the necessary resources (access, technology, knowledge) can try to sabotage your business. There are attackers who take advantage of the freedom that the internet offers and aim to compromise as much database and device data as possible. Most often, however, companies are attacked from within, by employees or partners.
Cyberattacks are not just for small businesses. There are many examples of business giants who have proven to be vulnerable. We have selected four of the best known.
LINKEDIN – LinkedIn suffered its first serious attack in 2012, but this was not officially confirmed until 2016 or even then on the scale of the disaster. Then, the email addresses and passwords of about 165 million LinkedIn users were sold and posted on a Russian forum for 5 bitcoins, or about $ 2,000 at the time.
A massive “leak” of information took place in April 2021, when another batch of information with data of over 500 million accounts was put up for auction by hackers.
In June 2021 it happened again and this time the scandal was resounding. From the huge network of the network were extracted and published on a “dark web” forum the professional data of over 700 million users, ie over 90% of users. The data obtained includes the full names of users, email addresses, telephone numbers and information about education and professional history, physical addresses, login details and other social media accounts.
While LinkedIn representatives have made sure that no sensitive data has been disclosed, digital security experts have confirmed that this data is particularly important and can be used in criminal proceedings.

FACEBOOK – De la înființare, Facebook a fost implicat în mai multe scandaluri legate de atacuri ale hacker-ilor asupra bazelor de date și scurgere a datelor utilizatorilor. The first security breach occurred in December 2005, when researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a script that could download information held by the social networking platform and easily gain access to the personal data of more than 70,000 users.
In the summer of 2013, the data of over six million accounts were compromised, due to an “error” of the Facebook platform, which exposed the information. The hackers immediately took advantage of what was offered to them on the tray.
In April 2019, it was revealed that two Facebook databases had been compromised. Information from more than 530 million Facebook users in 106 countries, including data such as phone numbers, account names, and networking IDs, has been revealed. More than 90 million people have been disconnected from the network and forced to reconnect.
On April 3, 2021, it happened again. The data of over 500,000 users ended up in the wrong hands. The founder said that this leak was related to the 2019 attack, but the security problem has been fixed for a long time.
UBER – Uber’s first serious problem started in 2014, when there was an illegal access to the database. The attackers used an AWS passkey that was publicly posted on GitHub and obtained information that included 100,000 driver names, driver’s license numbers, physical addresses, and e-mail addresses.
In 2016, the giant transport company was the victim of another cyber attack that revealed the personal data of over 600,000 drivers and 57 million customers. These included names, email addresses, phone numbers, and travel history.
According to Bloomberg, the company’s representatives allegedly paid about $ 100,000 to the hackers in order not to reveal anything about the security breach and to delete the data they obtained illegally.
Former Uber security chief Joe Sullivan was charged with obstruction of justice in August 2020 and sentenced to eight years in prison.
BRITISH AIRWAYS – In 2018, British Airways faced an attack in which the data of more than 420,000 passengers were stolen. Key bank card details were revealed for 380,000 of them.
Information was leaked to people, such as login details and booking details, names, physical addresses and email addresses.
In terms of banking data, digital criminals have come up with all the information they need to use remote credit cards, such as ID numbers, expiration dates and three-digit CVV codes. The verdict given by the investigators was poor computer security.
What are the main problems of the companies?

In the experience of over 7 years, Netwise has established that the main problems that make companies vulnerable are:
Improper password management
Human error is the cause of more than a quarter of all security breaches.
Technology vulnerabilities
How do you protect your company from hacker attacks?

The solutions to the most common problems that sites face are simpler than you think.
Controls employee activity
Change passwords regularly
Regularly update work platforms
Use strong, different passwords for each account
It does not allow anyone access to valuable electronic data
Use a hosting service that can detect and prevent security threats, whether it’s applications or sites
Netwise offers professional cybersecurity analysis solutions that ensure the smooth running of online processes, even for high-traffic sites, applications, and high-volume blogs.
For your online business to grow safely, it is a wise decision to use services such as:
Managing cloud or on-prem servers
Optimal cloud design and building
Cloud migration or resource efficiency
Efficient monitoring and logging of services and services
Cyber security: prevention – detection – response

The decision to shelter your business with the protection tools developed over the years by the cybersecurity specialists from Netwise can make a difference for your business.

 

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