When you hear of hacking and cyber attacks, most of you would perceive these terms as something from sci-fi movies.
Nonetheless, it’s high time to realize that hacking isn’t a fictional thing as it turns out . Nor is it rare.
Everything is an sample of a cyberattack, from cracking your personal user ID passwords to taking over your firm’s IT structure.
Interestingly, With this article, we’ll take a look at the six devastating cyberattacks that forced the victim business to shut down. Actually, We do not panic these incidents to create in modern times fear or discuss. Instead, we aim to make our readers realize the importance of cybersecurity, regardless of whether you own big or small businesses.
It’s worth noting that 6 companies that were forced to shut down after cyber attacks
1. Code Spaces
Indeed, Code Space was a code hosting corporation that existed a few years ago. It offered various projectcustomersmanagement tools to its .
Indeed, The business suffered a devastating DDoS attack in June 2014 that caused severe solution disruption. The attackers also stepped ahead to access the firm’s cloud databases and, wipe off the details backups configurations, and erase offsite backups either wholly or partially.
It’s worth noting that The attack lasted for about 12 hours. After that, the firm was left inoperable due to the very high recovery costs. The firm confirmed the reasoning behind their shutdown in a disclosure.
2 in modern times . The Heritage Business
The announcement came days before Christmas, UK-based telemarketing The Heritage Firm stirred the announcement world as it announced an unexpected shut down in December 2019.leaving around 300 employees unemployed.
What made them shut down like this? In fact, A ransomware attack!
While announcing the decision via a Facebook submit, the company CEO Sandra Franecke admitted that the ransomware attack that hit the firm two months earlier caused huge losses.
InterestinglyitAlthough she hoped , would be a temporary closure, things were clear. After running for 61 years, the Heritage Enterprise has no longer existed.
3. as a matter of fact Travelex
The British foreign exchange business Travelex is also among those companies that were forced to shut down due to hackers as a matter of fact As you may know, . Although Travelex still up and running, it has endured pretty rough times earlier this year.
It’s worth noting that The corporation suffered a devastating ransomware attack from Sodinokibi fresh yet notorious the ransomware gang.The attackers demanded $6 million as ransom while also stealing the details from the firm’s network.
The incident happened in late December 2019, after which its services went down in modern times . It then took the firm nearly four months to be up again.
as a matter of fact April 2020, itInturned out that the business has possibly paid the ransom to the attackers for service restoration.
4. from another perspective Indeed, MyBizHomepage
After running successfully for six years, the firm eventually had to go offline in 2012 MyBizHomepage was established in 2006 as an online solution helping companies to monitor financial metrics.due to a cyber attack.
Actually What’s different here is that the firm, didn’t suffer a random cyberattack. Instead, it morewasof an insider attack.
It’s from another perspective worth.noting that Briefly, the company CEO fired the firm’s CTO due to a conflict overselling the firm Out of revenge, the CTO conducted back-to-back attacks on the company’s software. Repeated claims about the company defrauding investors surfaced online, maligning the firm’s .reputation as a matter of fact
In fact, ., the events compelled the CEO to declare bankruptcyEventually
5. Wood Ranch Medical
An American healthcare provider, Wood Ranch Medical, also had to shut down its services due to a cyber attack in modern times in 2019. The facility suffered a ransomware attackAs you may know, in patients 2019, locking them out of the August’ data.
According to reports, the attack caused irreparable damage to the infected systems, making document recovery impossible.
Eventually, Wood Ranch Medical announced a permanent closure of services until December 17, 2019.
6. In fact Youbit Cryptocurrency, Exchange
One such entity was the Among all the companies that were forced to shut down due to hackers, the cryptocurrency exchanges included as well.South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Youbit.
The second attack proved to be the final nail in its coffin as In 2017, the exchange twice suffered cyber attacks – the first in April and then in December.it dragged the exchange to bankruptcy.
Topcyberattacksvulnerabilities that empower hackers for frequent
After going through the incidents compelling the companies to shut down due to hackers, you might have thought, what facilitates hackersattacksin conducting these ?
Although the opportunities are endless for hackers to exploit and target businesses. Yet, in most cases, we see a similarity of causes of cyberattacks.
It’s worth noting that So, below, we list the most common issues that trigger hacking attacks.
Weak passwords
of reiterating the importance Despite setting up strong passwords, unfortunately, people still forget this critical security factor.
The practice of using weak passwords isn’t only common at a personal level, but at the corporate level too.
For instance, even the latest SolarWinds cybersecurity was incident possibly executed successfully owing to a weak and leaked password – ‘solarwinds123.’
emailsPhishingand social engineering
Phishing emails are also a common vector to executecybersuccessful attacks. A single tap on the wrong hyperlink by a curious and ignorant employee could bring devastating results to the firm.
The recent Twitter hacking incidentActually, is just an example of it.
Less cybersecurity budget
Last, but the most important triggering factor behind cyberattacks is the less security budget. While the management doesn’t mind spending currency pay making their products attractive, they on no heed to encrypted things unless they suffer an attack.
As a outcome, the potentially exploitable vulnerabilities and weaknesses persist, alluring the cybercriminals to exploit them.
According to 2019 statistics, this ignorant behavior is costing the firms around $200,000 on average. as a matter of fact This is true for both big andsmall businesses. It’s worth noting that Eventually, many small-medium level firms go out of business. They suffer financial losses and miss their reputation, field stance, and consumers’ confidence.
How to as it turns out protect your enterprise against hackers
Although executing cyberattacks on different firms is continuously improving, the firms can significantly avoid the damages by implementing cybersecurity most effective practices.
Implementing as a matter of fact them isn’ttoughso either. All you need to do is to take care of basic security measures like:
- Setting up strong passwords for all company accounts. Say no to the “admin123” trend.
- Backup your data regularly on the cloud.
- Limit access to backups to the relevant and educated IT personnel only.
- Ensure each and every system on your company network goes through regular virus scans.
- Ensure that each and every software running on your company network is up-to-date.
- Protect your company’s network (including public WiFi) from unsolicited connections.
- Train your staff for cybersecurity best practices. Primarily, they should be made aware of phishing emails.
- Perform a thorough background check of every employee or potential candidate before hiring to prevent insider threats.
Lastly, always have a plan ‘B to’ cope up with a potential security incident. You can even hire the services of a credible cybersecurity firm to aid you secure your organization.
