The 7 Biggest Government Cyberattacks since 2011
The government-industry is a prime target for hackers…
Economic and political motivations mean there is a demand
for private government information – from global, state-funded hacking,
to cyberattacks on local councils, cybersecurity is a big concern for governments worldwide.
In the following video, we take a look at 7 of the biggest
government cyberattacks from the last 7 years.
The 7 Biggest Government Cyberattacks in the last 7 years
2011: The Paris G20 summit
An email containing a PDF attachment infected with malware was sent to the French Ministry of Finance. The virus infected around 150 computers with access to confidential G20 data.
2012: US Office of Personnel Management
Two separate attacks were launched on the US Office of Personnel Management between 2012 and 2015. Hackers stole around 22 million records including social security numbers, addresses, and even fingerprint data.
2014: Aadhaar
Personal information, including email addresses, phone numbers, and even thumbprints and retina scans, for over 1 billion Indian citizens was stolen from the Aadhaar database. The data was reported to have sold online for as little as £6.
2015: Germany Parliament Offices
The offices of 16 parliamentarians including the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, were compromised – with mailboxes copied and internal data uncovered.
2016: US Clinton Campaign
The personal email account of John Podesta, chairman of Hilary Clinton’s US presidential campaign, was compromised with over 20,000 emails leaked, potentially derailing the campaign which ultimately lost. The Democratic National Committee was targeted in the same year, with around 20,000 emails from key staff leaked including confidential party secrets.
2017: Ukraine Government officials
The malware was originally planted on a popular Ukrainian tax update site, spreading across finance and services sites, and even reaching the US, UK Germany, France, and other countries. The virus dubbed ‘NotPetya’ infected computers and wrote over files.
2018: Northern Ireland Parliament offices
The Northern Irish parliament was hit by a brute force attack which gave hackers access to members’ mailboxes. The parliament IT department was able to disable compromised accounts, and staff have been urged to make their passwords longer and a greater combination of letters, numbers, and special characters.
Government data is worth so much to hackers – often supported and funded by opposition parties or states. It’s important to keep all data, including emails, files and networks secure. Regularly update passwords and keep them unique. Talk to us for more ideas on how to protect your private data against online threats.
Read more about the cybersecurity risks facing the government:
Get in touch
