Major Cyber Attacks that took place so far in 2021

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Microsoft Exchange Server Cyber Attack- Cyber Threat actors somehow infiltrated the email servers of Microsoft Exchange operating across the world through a vulnerability and accessed data of many government and private companies. Later, the Satya Nadella led company issued a statement that it could be the work of a Chinese Hacking group named Hafinium.

Poisoning a Florida based water utility through Cyber Attack- Hackers somehow infiltrated a Florida based water utility to increase the amount of Sodium Hydroxide in the water supply to dangerous level making the staff take the help of FBI to track down the culprits. Although the details of the investigation are kept as a secret from the media, Reuters confirmed in April that it could be a state funded attack.

Channel Nine 9 cyber attack- Australian Television Network dubbed Channel Nine was targeted by a cyber attack on March 28th,2021 halting several news bulletins and morning shows for the day. Initially, the channel claimed that it was a disruption caused because of some technical difficulties, but later confirmed the cyber incident.

Harris Federation Cyber Attack- A ransomware attack targeted educational institute Harris Federation disrupting online studies and correspondence to nearly 37K students in March 2021.

USA’s largest cyber insurance provider CNA Financial suffered a ransomware attack on March 21st,2021 forcing the company to shut down its services for few days. Sources later confirmed that the hackers involved in the incident used Phoenix CryptoLocker Malware to encrypt the database of the insurance firm.

Bombardier suffered a massive data breach in February this year compromising sensitive data related to its clients, customers and over 130 employees in Costa Rica. Clop Ransomware is suspected to be behind the incident and might have invaded the network through a vulnerability from a third party file transfer application.

Computer maker Acer suffered a ransomware attack from REvil Ransomware group that demanded $50 million to free up the database. As the company failed to bow down to the demands of the cyber crooks, the threat actors leaked the stolen data on the dark web.

Accellion Supply Chain attack has become a topic of discussion from March this year as the security software provider was targeted by hackers who stole critical data related to the company by exploiting a vulnerability in the Accellion File Transfer Software. Thus, because of this attack, Grocery Giant Kroger, Telecom Giant Singtel, University of Colorado, Cyber Security Firm Qualys, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) lost a lot of confidential data as they was customers of Accellion File Transfer software.

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Naveen Goud is a writer at Cybersecurity Insiders covering topics such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Startups, Cyber Attacks, Cloud Security and Mobile Security

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