A look at some of the biggest cyberattacks from last year

You hear all the time that it’s best to learn from mistakes, and sometimes the biggest lessons come from those times when things are going completely awry.

That is clear from just a cursory look at big cybercrime incidents from 2021. Technology and policies have been adopted by businesses of all sizes due to what has taken place around the world when cyber criminals decide to strike and wreak havoc.

Here’s a look at some of the most notable cyberattacks that took place in 2021 as reported by Touro College Illinois and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Colonial Pipeline
This is where gasoline supplies were disrupted by a known cybercriminal group called The DarkSide, as they launched a ransomware attack that led to distribution issues from this gas provider, which admitted that its cybersecurity was not up to speed. The $4.4 million in cryptocurrency was recovered by the FBI, but the specific hackers were not found or prosecuted.

JBS Foods
This meat processing company was hacked and held for ransom, and this time the $411 million ransom was paid in bitcoin and not recovered. The hack didn’t cause any shortages or distribution issues, and in fact there was a high-profile effort by the U.S. government to discourage meat hoarding during this timeframe.

Acer
The largest cyber attack known to date took place in 2021, as a hacker group named REvil struck out at the Acer computer manufacturer, asking for $50 million. The hackers were able to find a vulnerability in a Microsoft Exchange serve to leak sensitive documents and gain file access.

Microsoft email
This incident stemmed from Chinese hackers, who worked to take data from about 30,000 global businesses and organizations around the world. Among those targeted were government agencies, defense contractors and infectious disease research firms.

US defense community
One of the more chilling attacks took place in November and December, as another group of Chinese hackers found passwords to systems for five U.S. defense and technology organizations, trying to intercept restricted communications and gain access to systems.

There are dozens more that both research groups list on their sites, showing that there is no real slowdown in cybercrime around the world and that businesses and organizations need to stay vigilant to protect their valuable digital assets and systems.

As for solutions for you to prevent cyber attacks, CHIPS has developed our own Zero Trust endpoint protection product, called AppGuard. We have several webinars set for the fall to demonstrate AppGuard and give more details to see if it’s a solution for you. Go to our Calendly site to see dates and times.