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Top 5 Cyberattacks of 2024: Is Your Content Marketing Hitting the Mark?
In 2024, cyberattacks continued to wreak havoc across all industries, causing significant disruptions to organizations and critical services. The year saw a surge in incidents targeting critical infrastructure, healthcare, digital repositories, and supply chains. Notably, ransomware attacks on healthcare increased, highlighting the sector's vulnerability.
While this list only scratches the surface of the incidents, we have identified five of the most impactful attacks.
1. Change Healthcare (subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare Group) Ransomware Attack
| Date: | February 2024 |
| Attacker Group: | Alphv/BlackCat ransomware group. |
| Method of Attack: | Network access was gained using compromised credentials for a Citrix server that did not have multifactor authentication enabled. |
| Records Exposed: | Exposed data included names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, passport numbers, health data, and financial and banking information. |
| Affected Entities: | Approximately 190 million individuals were impacted, making the attack one of the largest healthcare breaches in history. |
| Impact: | The attack disrupted healthcare services nationwide, affecting hospitals’ ability to process payments, prescribe medications, and perform procedures. Change Healthcare pulled much of its network offline to contain the intruders, causing immediate outages across the U.S. healthcare sector. The ramifications for the millions of Americans whose private medical information was irretrievably stolen are likely to be life lasting. |
2. Snowflake Data Breach
| Date: | April 2024 |
| Attacker Group: | Threat actor tracked as UNC5537, linked to the Scattered Spider Group. |
| Method of Attack: | Attackers used info-stealing malware to steal credentials and access Snowflake environments, exploiting the lack of mandatory multifactor authentication (MFA). |
| Records Exposed: | Approximately 1.2 terabytes of data that included names, userids, email addresses, passwords, Social Security numbers, and bank account details. |
| Affected Entities: | 165 Snowflake customers were impacted by the attack. Notable companies impacted include TicketMaster (560 million records), Advanced Auto Parts (79 million records), AT&T (70 million records), TEG (30 million records) and Santander Bank. |
| Impact: | The attack extorted millions from corporations. The stolen information was advertised for sale on cybercrime forums, leading to multiple data breaches among Snowflake's clients. |
3. Internet Archive Attack
| Date: | Multiple attacks in October 2024 |
| Attacker Groups: | 3 separate data breaches: Unknown attacker. DDoS attack and website defacement: SN_BlackMeta, a group known for politically motivated cyberattacks. |
| Method of Attack: | 1st data breach: exploitation of exposed GitLab token. 2nd data breach: exploitation of unrotated Zendesk API tokens. 3rd data breach: exploitation of exposed and unrotated tokens. DDoS attack origin unknown; website defacement via JS library. |
| Records Exposed: | Data breach: 7 terabytes of data that exposed email addresses, usernames, and other internal data. |
| Affected Entities: | Data breaches: 31 million users. DDoS/website defacement: Researchers, historians and the general public who rely on the Internet Archive for access to historical records and digital artifacts, including the Wayback Machine and OpenLibrary. |
| Impact: | The attack underscores the need to protect digital repositories and the potential consequences of cyberattacks on digital history. It also increases the risk of phishing scams, identity theft, and unauthorized account access. |
4. National Public Data (Jerico Pictures) Data Breach
| Date: | April 2024. Confirmation of the incident occurred in August 2024 when a class-action lawsuit was filed against the organization. |
| Attacker Group: | Threat actor operating under the moniker “USDoD,” subsequently identified as Luan Goncalves. |
| Method of Attack: | The hack was achieved via an unknown method. The leaked materials showed National Public Data failed to implement basic security protections like encryption. |
| Records Exposed: | Up to 2.9 billion records containing full names, mailing addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and family member details dating back 30 years. The data was initially put up for sale on April 8, 2024, for $3.5 million. The attacker subsequently made the data from the National Public Data breach public for free on August 6, 2024. |
| Affected Entities: | Up to 170 million people in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. |
| Impact: | The breach is one of the largest in history and only came to light when a class-action lawsuit was filed against the organization. National Public Data, also known as Jericho Pictures, primarily conducted background checks by scraping data from non-public sources. The breach affected a large number of people, many of whom were unaware their data was collected. |
5. XZ Utils Supply Chain Attack
| Date: | March 2024 |
| Attacker Group: | Threat actor identified as Jia Tan, also known by the nickname JiaT7512. Several security experts believe this supply chain attack to be state-sponsored. |
| Method of Attack: | The XZ backdoor attack was executed over two years and discovered on March 29, 2024. Jia Tan used pseudonyms and social engineering to gain co-maintainer status in the XZ Utils open source project. Malicious code was embedded in versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1, enabling remote command execution during SSH logins. The backdoor was multi-staged and obfuscated to evade detection. |
| Intended Action: | The code was designed to execute at the conclusion of a script, modify the XZ Utils library, and allow unauthorized access to the system. It disrupted the system's login process, thereby facilitating easier entry for attackers. |
| Affected Entities: | Affected distributions included Fedora Rawhide, Fedora 40 Beta, Fedora 41, Debian testing, unstable and experimental distributions, openSUSE Tumbleweed, openSUSE MicroOS, Kali Linux, and Arch Linux. |
| Impact: | The backdoor was discovered a few days before being released on several Linux systems worldwide. The XZ Utils backdoor attack was a near-miss supply chain compromise that could have caused catastrophic damage. If it had gone undiscovered for a few more months, countless production servers worldwide could have been impacted. |
The cyberattacks of 2024 serve as a stark reminder that no organization is immune to threats. These incidents highlight the increasing sophistication and diversity of cyberthreats, emphasizing the need for robust cybersecurity measures. As we enter 2025, protecting sensitive data and maintaining customer trust remain fundamental responsibilities in the digital age.
From Cyberthreats to Cyber Solutions: The Value of Content Marketing
In light of these escalating threats, the need for robust cybersecurity solutions has never been more critical. However, even the most advanced security solutions can't fulfill their potential if they remain unknown or misunderstood. This is where effective cybersecurity marketing comes into play—more specifically, content marketing.
Incorporating content marketing into your marketing mix is crucial for reaching and resonating with your target audience. By producing engaging content that both showcases your unique value proposition and addresses prevalent cybersecurity challenges, you can position your organization as a thought leader and reliable resource, educate potential clients, and enable them to make informed decisions.
Content is undeniably the backbone of any successful marketing strategy—it drives engagement, generates leads, and positions your brand as a trusted authority. However, the ongoing demand for high-quality content can quickly overwhelm even the most capable marketing teams. This is where outsourcing content development becomes a valuable solution.
Staff augmentation helps you meet your content needs without overburdening your team. It saves time and reduces costs while giving you access to a diverse talent pool to produce content that truly resonates with your audience. By entrusting professionals with content development, you can concentrate on core marketing strategies, ensuring your content remains high-quality and impactful.
Need Help with Content Creation?
Creating great content is easy with the right partner. At CyberEdge, we specialize in crafting content that cuts through the noise and gets you noticed. As the largest content creation firm dedicated exclusively to the IT security industry, we work with one in every six cybersecurity vendors, delivering business and technical content tailored to every learning style. Whether you need help with a one-off project or ongoing support, we’ve got you covered.
Ready to see why so many security vendors trust CyberEdge? Schedule a 20-minute consultation today and discover how our expert content creation services can enhance your lead generation and marketing success.
