The Worst Hacks of 2017
1The Worst Hacks of 2017.
2017 was bananas in lots of ways, and cybersecurity was no exception. Whether critical infrastructure attacks or insecure databases, hacks, breaches, and leaks of unprecedented scale impacted institutions around the world—along with the billions of people who trust them with their data.
This list includes incidents disclosed in 2017, but note that some took place earlier. (Speaking of which, you know it's a heck of a year when Yahoo reveals that it leaked info for three billion accounts, and it's still not a clear-cut winner for worst.) The pace has been unrelenting, but before we forge on. Here’s WIRED’s look back at the biggest hacks in 2017.
Security doomsayers have long warned about the potential dangers posed by critical infrastructure hacking. But for many years the Stuxnet worm, first discovered in 2010, was the only known piece of malware built to target and physically damage industrial equipment. But in 2017, researchers from multiple security groups published findings on two such digital weapons. First came the grid-hacking tool Crash Override, revealed by the security firms ESET and Dragos Inc., which was used to target the Ukrainian electric utility Ukrenergo and cause a blackout in Kiev at the end of 2016. A suite of malware called Triton, discovered by the firm FireEye and Dragos, followed close behind, attacked industrial control systems.
Crash Override and Triton don't seem to be connected, but they have some similar conceptual elements that speak to the traits that are crucial to infrastructure attacks. Both infiltrate complex targets, which can potentially be reworked for other operations. They also include elements of automation, so an attack can be put in motion and then play out on its own. They aim not only to degrade infrastructure, but to target the safety mechanisms and failsafes meant to harden systems against attack. And Triton targets equipment used across numerous industrial sectors like oil and gas, nuclear energy, and manufacturing.