Cyberattacks are malicious attempts by hackers to damage, disrupt, or steal data from a system, network, or device. These incidents can lead to massive data breaches, financial loss, and even identity theft. For businesses, the disruption to critical operations is often the most damaging outcome, with ransomware being the most notorious threat.

A recent cyberattack on Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has disrupted operations, causing significant flight delays and cancellations.

This incident serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to cyber threats.

The attack, which began on August 24, 2024, has compromised internet services, phone lines, baggage handling, and flight information systems.

This week, there have been several notable cyberattacks, and while I usually focus on just one major incident, I’m changing things up. Moving forward, I’ll cover multiple incidents each week, including both well-known and lesser-reported attacks—some of which we see happening on the dark web.

Today, we're diving into a topic that's taken the internet by storm—something that has almost every American worried—the massive data breach that has potentially exposed the Social Security numbers of nearly every U.S. citizen. This could be one of the biggest breaches in internet history!
So, What Happened?
This breach involves 2.7 billion records that were leaked, including Social Security numbers, addresses, and other highly sensitive information.

In 2024, ransomware has continued to be one of the most devastating cyber threats facing businesses globally. As we explore this escalating crisis, it becomes clear that the tactics used by cybercriminals are evolving rapidly, becoming more sophisticated, more frequent, and more costly than ever before.

In a troubling repeat of last year's events, McLaren Health Care in Michigan is once again grappling with a significant IT disruption, raising alarms about another potential cybersecurity incident. This disruption, impacting the hospital's computer and phone systems, is reminiscent of the ransomware attack the organization faced in the fall of 2023.

As a cybersecurity expert, it's clear to me that such widespread outages often signal a cyberattack rather than a simple IT issue.

Cybersecurity involves practices and technologies to protect computers, networks, programs, and data from unauthorized access and attacks. Essentially, we're safeguarding data because cybercriminals target personal information, healthcare data, and financial details for identity theft and fraud.

This blog provides the latest update on the CrowdStrike-Microsoft outage, which has caused a global IT disruption affecting thousands of companies worldwide. The fallout has been extensive, impacting everything from airports and banks to some government entities.

AT&T recently disclosed a massive data breach in which hackers stole phone call records and text message metadata from nearly all their customers. This breach is said to have affected data from May 2022 to January 2023. While the specifics of conversations and message content were not compromised, the text messages' metadata were exposed.

The automotive industry is facing a significant upheaval due to a recent cyberattack on CDK Global, a prominent provider of IT and digital marketing solutions for auto dealers. This incident has disrupted the operations of tens of thousands of auto dealers and affected hundreds of thousands of workers, highlighting vulnerabilities that could have far-reaching economic implications.