2017 Notorious Cybersecurity Interruptions

An irrational number of cybersecurity emergencies flooded the initial half of the year 2017, and this breach goes beyond the regular interruption in cybersecurity. As of now, there have been several leaks of spy tools from US intelligence agencies, state-sponsored ransomware, as well as full-on campaign hacking. The rate of cybersecurity meltdowns is alarming, and this might still go on for a long period of time.

Below is some of the chaotic occurrence of cybersecurity meltdown which took the better part of the year 2017.

Shadow Brokers
In August 2016, a hacking group known as the shadow brokers caught the attention of the public when a claim was made to have breached the Equation Group which is the spy tool of the elite NSA-linked operation. A civil argument has resuscitated concerning the threat involved in the utilization of bugs in commercial products for intelligence gathering as a result of the group’s groundbreaking leaks. The most dreadful impact of the shadow brokers happened in April 2017, which included a leak of important alleged NSA tools, as well as a window, exploit known as the EternalBlue. This has become a tool used by hackers to cause damage to high profile ransomware. Despite the damaged caused by the shadow brokers, their true identity still remains a mystery.

WannaCry
WannaCry in another strain of ransomware which caused so much havoc on the 12th of May. The strain caused significant damages to numerous companies. Some of the institutions whose services were crippled eminently by the ransomware included the National Health Service hospitals, emergency rooms, facilities in the United Kingdom, as well as causing a delay to numerous medical procedures.

Despite the fact that the ransomware was considered powerful, Security experts were able to melt down the malware spontaneously because of its trivial flaws. The total loss caused by WannaCry amounted to nearly 52 bitcoins, or about $13000. After rigorous scrutiny, the US official came to a conclusion that the ransomware was a revenue-raising program gone wrong and not a deliberate act.

Before the breach, Microsoft released a patch bug MS17-010 in March. However, many institutions became a victim of the WannaCry infection because the patch had not been applied.
Security experts were able to curb the spread of WannaCry to a limited extent because of one of the shadow brokers leaked windows, EternalBlue.

Wikileaks CIA Vault 7
Wikileaks CIA Vault 7 is one of the notorious breaches of 2017. On the 7th of March, the CIA data trove was allegedly stolen and about 8,761 documents which contained confidential and detailed documentation of claimed spying operations and hacking tools were leaked. The leaked was named “Vault 7,” WikiLeaks consist of tools such as the Wi-Fi signals used to track the location of a device, then using codes to basically control the hardware and software coordinates.

Claims made by WikiLeaks include the exploitation of the CIA viruses, Trojan, Malwares. The gravity of the exploitation could not be ascertained, which prompted discussion about the issues and dangers inalienable in government advancement of computerized spy devices. Experts believe that if truly the tools were legitimate, then the operational credibility of the CIA could not be vouched for.