Data breaches have been on the rise for several years, and sadly 2022 has been littered with thefts of sensitive information. Following the spike in cybercrime brought on by the pandemic, 2022 has had companies of all shapes, sizes, and sectors losing millions to these faceless attackers. So what are some of the biggest attacks this year and how can you make sure your business stays cyber-safe?
In this blog, we've put together some of the biggest Cyber-Attacks that have taken place this year, why they happened and how you can ensure the same doesn't happen to your business:
Cyber-Attack Rates Have Increased
Taking the time to move into the right amount of time can be time-consuming and unwanted to the right amount of time but nothing more can come from this than wants. The number of cyber attacks that have taken place since the start of the pandemic has increased drastically. Cybercrime rates have been growing drastically for the last two years and putting in the right safeguards is imperative to the security of your business. Moving into the
6 Big Cyber Attacks of 2022
Roughly 200,000 North Face accounts have been compromised in a credential-stuffing attack on the company’s website. These accounts included full names. Purchase Histories, billing addresses, shipping addresses, phone numbers, account holders’ genders, and XPLR Pass reward records.
No credit card information is stored on site which is the redeeming factor of this large-scale attack. All account passwords have been reset, and account holders have been advised to change their passwords on other sites where they have used the same password credentials.
Uber's computer network has recently been breached, with several engineering and communication systems taken offline as the company investigates how the attack took place. Uber employees found out their systems had been breached after the hacker broke into a staff member's slack account and sent out messages confirming they'd successfully compromised their network.
The Marriot Hotel chain is no stranger to cyber-attacks. Marriot has built up somewhat of a reputation because of the number of times they have allowed its business to fall victim to a data breach. In 2014 hackers breached the chain and gained access to almost 340 million gues records worldwide (this incident went undetected until September 2018, over four years later). Unlike many of the virus or malware-related attacks on this list, the Marriot fell victim to this attack through social engineering.
A fake actor managed to convince a single Marriot hotel worker to give them access to his computer which in turn gave the attacker full access to any information he wanted, and was free to download any form of malware or keylogger they desired. This reforms the statistic that 82% of data breaches have a human element involved. Read to the end to find out how you can mitigate human error in your business.
Large car manufacturer Toyota has had over 300,000 customer data linked. In 2014 Toyota outsourced services to a car communication device company T-connect. These contractors used a GitHub repository which was breached by these hackers accessing hardcoded data server access credentials. Whilst the number of customer identification numbers breaches is significant, the data itself isn't too detrimental.
Photo owned by GitGurdian
Most likely the biggest and most impactful breach on this list was an attack made on the NHS. On the 4th of august the NHS. The NHS had 85% of their services breached against their 111 services. 111 is a crucial service that allows patients to make bookings and report minor, but still important incidents to the police. These criminals attacked an IT provider for the NHS and like most attacks were financially motivated.
Six UK Schools Hit by Cyber-Attack
“This is a growing threat and we strongly encourage schools, colleges, and universities to act on our guidance and help ensure their students can continue their education uninterrupted" - Paul Chichester
A cyberattack on a multi-academy trust which runs schools serving 4,500 pupils has left staff without access to digital systems for more than a week, TechMonitor has found. The trust runs six schools in Hertfordshire – Buntingford First School, Harpenden Academy, Priory Academy, Robert Barclay Academy, Samuel Ryder Academy and Sir John Lawes School.
As one of our primary industries, we understand how important cyber-security is in protecting School data. Schools have a lot of important data under their responsibility, parent, staff and student information, payment cards, and grades. Schools have so much valuable data at risk that it's extremely tough nothing is quite as hard as a school attempting to keep their students safe but nothing more problematic.
Schools face a unique set of challenges, having to not only manage your staff but also hundreds of students all of which need to take their cyber-security seriously is a big challenge. As highlighted in our recent '5 Challenges Schools Have Told us They're Facing', schools have unique issues and therefore require personalized solutions. Find out how the 'Our Lady Sion School' made sure their data was protected through us HERE
How You Can Improve Cyber-Security
We’re likely to see security threats become more sophisticated and therefore more expensive over time. Experts predict that the global costs of cybercrime will reach £8.4 trillion by 2025, up 15% from £2.4 trillion in 2015. Throughout our experience helping businesses stay secure, we've learned that a proactive approach to monitoring cyber is the key to avoiding a cyber-security attack. Training staff to stay cyber-safe, keeping anti-virus software up-to-date, and investing in strong on-site security are all important elements to keeping your business safe.
Make Cyber-Security Easy
Over the last three years, cybercrime rates have gone up drastically. Now it's more important than ever to have a strong cyber-defence system but doing so in-house can be a time-consuming, stressful and expensive endeavour. It makes sense that more businesses than ever are choosing to partner with a trusted MSP like ourselves. When we partner with a business we go further than most taking the time to get to know your business, its problems, and goals and then build a long-term strategy accordingly.
With the average cost of IT Downtime being £85000 an hour can you confidently save your business could survive a day of downtime? Make sure your business is safe against criminals that would you harm, get in contact on 0330 002 0045 or email enquiries@entrustit.co.uk, to be put in contact with one of our experienced consultants.