- Well hey there, you're looking well today.
These days we're online for everything
whether it's your laptop, desktop computer, or cell phone
we put a lot of personal information online.
And we mostly assume that this information will be safe
but the following cases show that
increasingly often that's just not true.
And today's video is sponsored by
Nord VPN who's helping me bring this
information to you so let's get into it.
(electronic beeping)
Here are the 10 most devastating cyber attacks in history.
Number 10 is the Ashley Madison hack.
The Ashley Madison hack is perhaps the most
embarrassing cyber attack of all.
In 2015 the company Ashley Madison discovered
that it's private servers had been accessed
by a hacking group known as The Impact Team.
This group then threatened to release all of the information
that they had to the public if Ashley Madison
did not shut down the company.
The reason for this for this was that
Ashley Madison specialized in allowing
married people to have affairs discreetly.
Ashley Madison refused to shut down
and so 25 gigabytes of user data was released.
And this exposed Ashley Madison's users publicly.
It was also revealed that only 12,000 of the
5.5 million registered users were female
and most of those were created from a fake IP address.
Cheated by the cheaters I guess not all
cyber attacks are that bad...
Number nine is the Mafiaboy attack.
(electronic beeping)
Mafia Boy was the alternate ego of Michael Calce
who, in 2000, caused substantial damage to a series
of high profile websites including Amazon, Ebay, and Yahoo.
He did this through a series of distributed
denial of service attacks abbreviated as DDoS.
This type of attack is a common tactic
involving overwhelming websites with queries
to the point that they no longer function.
Mafia Boy used this approach and rendered
its targets useless for hours.
This resulted in millions of dollars worth of lost revenue.
Naming the attack Project Rivolta
Calce was revealed to be a high school student at the time
obsessed with making a name for himself as a hacker.
And he got that popularity and I'm sure he's going to be
just as popular when he's bending over in jail.
Well he didn't actually go to jail
after being sentenced to one year probation
Calce published a book about his experiences.
And they say crime doesn't pay.
Number eight is the Soviet Pipeline Explosion.
(electronic beeping)
The 1982 Soviet pipeline incident
involved a computer attack which was directly
responsible for a massive explosion.
During the Cold War the Soviet's attempted to steal
computer software used to oversee pump valves in gas pipes.
Knowing this the C.I.A deliberately placed
a Trojan virus inside their software.
When the Soviet's attempted to use the software
to operate a massive gas pipeline in Siberia
the Trojan horse took control of the valves and closed them.
This created massive amounts of pressure the result being
the largest non-nuclear explosion ever seen from space.
Unbelievably and thankfully there were no casualties
but the C.I.A achieved their dream of disrupting
the Soviet gas industry which had
massive economic implication for them.
Well at least were all friends now, right, right?
Number seven is the Sony hack.
(electronic beeping)
Also known as the Sony Picture hack
this 2014 cyber attack allegedly
from North Korea made international headlines.
At the time Sony pictures was pushing forward with the film
about the North Korean regime called The Interview.
Painting the North Korean chain of command in a poor light
to say the least North Korea threatened that there would be
dire consequences if the film was ever released.
Oh and consequences there were.
Hackers were able to download emails from Sony servers
along with copies of unreleased films
and personal details of Sony employees and their families.
Some of the information released was extremely damaging
for Sony including private insults
made at the expense of some of it's stars.
In one email a Sony producer referred to Angelina Jolie
as a minimally talented spoiled brat (chuckling) ouch.
Number six is the Yahoo theft.
(electronic beeping)
Some cyber attacks are so affective that the victims
don't even know it's happening until years later.
Well that was the case with Yahoo.
The one time most popular search engine in the world
has seen a number of instances
where user data has been stolen by hackers.
In 2014 an estimated 500 million accounts were hacked.
This gave hackers access to usernames, passwords,
as well as other sensitive material
which could be used to commit identity fraud.
But unbelievably it took yahoo four years to discover
that an even bigger hack had taken place during 2013.
When they finally discovered the theft they estimated that
as many as 1 billion user accounts had been compromised.
These historic hacks were so large that even
the US Senate decided to investigate them.
And to this day nobody knows who was responsible
for them or if they'll strike again.
Maybe it's because it's Yahoo and if any of you
are still using Yahoo you kind of deserve it
what's wrong with you?
Number five is the Shamoon virus.
(electronic beeping)
Security experts warned that energy suppliers
could be targeted by hackers.
Such an attack could render a country immobile.
Imagine no electricity but this isn't
a purely hypothetical situation.
Hackers have already targeted energy suppliers in the past.
For example the Shamoon virus was developed in 2012
and was released by a group of hackers
known as Cutting Swords of Justice.
Okay that's actually kind of a badass name
the Cutting Swords of Justice.
The virus was used to undermine
the energy company Saudi Americo.
When the virus was unleashed it infected
more than 30,000 computers at the company
shutting down their entire network.
Then to make things worse the virus
spread to other energy companies.
But the most interesting thing is that
if such an attack happened today it's still unclear
how quickly a power grid would even recover.
Too many kids growing up with these dang computers
no more Minecraft for you.
Number four is Titan Rain.
(electronic beeping)
It was during the early 2000's
that cyber attacks began to ramp up.
With Titan rain being one of the most notorious.
This virus targeted American computer networks
and affected a number of US government contractors
such as Redstone Arsenal and Lockheed Martin.
Not exactly small names and it even spread to NASA.
Titan Rain's main objective was to
gather intel from these organizations.
And that sounds dangerous to me because
I don't know what kind of space secrets
that Nasa's holding maybe there's aliens.
The virus sought out and transmitted
sensitive data to an unknown source.
This most likely included highly classified technology
that was still under development.
What is that a shrink gun?
Mm-mm I'm short enough as is nope.
The UK also found itself under attack from Titan Rain
and firmly pointed the finger at China as a source.
This created a serious international incident
as the British Ministry of Defense
struggled to hold onto it's classified files.
Where's James bond when you need him?
Money Penny is that a virus, I'm not good with computers.
Number three is Operation Shady Rat.
(electronic beeping)
This one might win the award for best name tag.
In 2008 a startling claim was made
by a group of hackers that no website was safe.
This might seem like common knowledge today but
back then many government and consumer websites spread
the idea that emerging online systems were unhackable.
A group of hardcore hackers from China
put this claim to the test.
The hackers numbered more than 10,000 and claimed
to have hacked every website imaginable even the Pentagon.
They also alleged that they were occasionally hired
by the Chinese government to carry out such cyber attacks.
After claiming they had been able to access
some of the most top secret documents in the United States
the Pentagon then conceded that it's systems
had been bypassed a number of times.
The myth of the unhackable website was dispelled
and people started fearing nerds everywhere.
The meek shall inherit the earth.
Number two is the Kuji and Datastream Cowboy.
(electronic beeping)
In 1994 two hackers going by the names of
Kuji and Datastream cowboy, by the way best names ever.
Managed to infiltrate so many US military systems
that they could have potentially started a nuclear war.
By out thinking the Pentagon's security protocols
both men gained access to battlefield simulation
which laid bare US strategies.
They also intercepted sensitive information
sent by undercover agents in North Korea.
And possibly most worryingly the hackers gained access
to a research facility in South Korea
which held information about atomic research.
Of the two men Kuji was the most dangerous
and according to special agent Jim Christy
he nearly started a third world war.
Oh and by the way this was all achieved
with a Commodore Amiga.
Got to look out for these retro gamers.
And number one is Wannacry.
(electronic beeping)
The Wannacry cyber attack is perhaps the most devastating
and far reaching hack seen so far.
It used ransomware which shut down
computer systems completely.
The hackers then offered to unlock
these systems for a price.
The crazy thing was that this blackmail
was on a global scale.
Wannacry effected an unprecedented 230,000 computers
around the world across 150 different countries.
Hackers demanded 600 dollars worth of crypto-currency
for each computer which was blocked.
But in a bizarre twist of fate many believe that Wannacry
was based on a US government program called Eternalblue.
Which had been leacked publicly not long before.
But the most damaging aspect of this attack
was that it shut down 70,000 computers
at the British National Health Service
and resulted in some patients having to postpone treatment.
Listen calling all white hat, gray hat,
black hat hackers whatever you want to be
just don't dick with people's lives you know what I'm saying
if you want to test security or steal some money
that's one thing but don't hurt people.
Gonna make me cry.
Whoo you know these cases were a little scary
but there is a way of helping prevent it
from happening to you use a VPN.
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So again download it using the link in the description below
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so that when you're online you're safe like I am.
Trust me, better safe than sorry
you don't want to end up like the cases on this list.
Thanks again to Nord VPN for sponsoring this video.
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and that's it I'll see you guys
in the next video, goodbye now.