HOW SAFE IS YOUR COMPUTER? MARION McMULLEN LOOKS AT THE RISE IN CYBER ATTACKS
1 ARE YOU SUFFERING FROM A VIRUS?
LARGE swathes of the NHS were paralysed by the recent cyber attack, which hit 200,000 victims in 150 countries around the world. British computer expert Marcus Hutchins, aged 22, was hailed a hero for helping to shut down the crippling cyber attack. He discovered a so-called “kill switch” that slowed the WannaCry virus.
2 WHO DIDN’T NEED THE NAKED TRUTH?
HUNDREDS of explicit images of some of Hollywood’s most famous stars were posted in several forum websites anonymously in 2014 after hackers broke into the iCloud accounts of more than 500 people. Celebrities caught up in the breach included Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence and model Kate Upton. Amber Heard and Cara Delevingne were also targeted.
3 WANT TO GET AWAY FROM IT ALL?
A CYBER attack on travel trade association Abta in February saw data records of around 43,000 people at risk of being accessed. The organisation said about 1,000 of the files may have included “personal identity information” of customers who had complained about a holiday.
4 WILL THEY MAKE PIRATE COPIES?
HACKERS this week claimed to have stolen an upcoming Disney movie, believed to be the new Pirates Of The Caribbean film starring Johnny Depp, and threatened to release it online if the studio did not pay a ransom. Disney is refusing to pay.
5 COULD IT BE YOU?
ONLINE accounts of thousands of National Lottery players were hacked last November. Camelot said it believed that “around 26,500 accounts were accessed,” but fewer than 50 had activity take place in the wake of the breach.
6 WHO FAKED IT?
LLOYDS Bank Group said it fended off a three-day-long cyber attack in January designed to overwhelm the bank’s systems and disrupt its digital services. Cyber criminals made millions of fake requests intermittently which stopped some customers from using their online accounts.
7 WHO BREACHED ACCOUNTS?
YAHOO admitted last September there had been a data breach in 2014 which had affected eight million users in the UK and compromised around 500 million accounts globally. They urged all users to change their passwords and security questions.
8 CAN WE TALK?
TELECOM company TalkTalk announced in 2015 that details of 156,959 customers and 15,656 bank account numbers were accessed during a cyber attack. It said the 28,000 obscured credit and debit card numbers that were taken could not be used for financial transactions. The breach saw customers leaving the company and cost the firm £60 million.
9 SHOULD YOU HANG UP?
THE personal details of 2.4 million customers may have been accessed after a division of Carphone Warehouse was hit by a “sophisticated” cyber attack in 2015. The breach saw information including bank details, names, and dates of birth compromised.
10 WHAT’S THE COST?
TESCO Bank said that of its 136,000 current account holders, 40,000 had seen suspicious transactions over a weekend hack attack in 2016. Money was fraudulently withdrawn from around 20,000 accounts. The hack prompted a freeze in online only transactions for customers and also resulted in the bank paying an estimated £2.5 million to 9,000 customers.