HACK ATTACK

FOUR OTHER ORGANISATIONS THAT CAME UNDER CYBER-FIRE… SOMETIMES WITH STRANGE RESULTS

Al-Qaeda/Operation Cupcake

In a 2011 hack, MI6 took down the instructions for making pipe bombs from a radical Muslim preacher’s online magazine and replaced the article with a collection of cupcake recipes taken from The Ellen DeGeneres Show’s “Best Cupcakes in America”. Sweet victory.

MySpace/The Samy Worm

On 4th October 2005, Samy Kamkar, a 19-year-old hacker, released what would be known as the “Samy Worm”, the fastest spreading virus of all time. It reached more than one million MySpace accounts and forced everyone who visited Kamkar’s profile to add him as a friend and display the words “but most of all, Samy is my hero” on their own page. Not-so-super, Samy.

Marriott International Corporation

Hacked in 2010 by Attila Nemeth, who threatened to reveal confidential information if Marriott did not offer him a $150,000 job, free hotel room and the right to work whenever he wanted. He was eventually arrested and sentenced to 30 months in prison.

iCloud

The infamous 2014 photo hack saw 500 pictures of naked celebrities illegally released online — among those were 60 pictures of Jennifer Lawrence. This led to an FBI investigation and the incarceration of hackers Ryan Collins and Edward Majerczyk.