Top 5 Personal Identity & Access Hacking Cases

📌 What Happened:
Hackers exploited a vulnerability in Apache Struts on Equifax’s website.

⚡ Impact:

• 147 million people exposed.

• Data included Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, and driver’s license info.

🔍 How It Happened:
Failure to patch a known vulnerability (CVE-2017-5638).

🛠 Tools & Techniques Used:

• Exploitation of unpatched web framework.

• Database exfiltration.

📉 Final Outcome:
Equifax paid $700M in fines and lost credibility.

📖 Source: FTC | Wikipedia

🛡 How to Overcome:

• Apply security patches immediately.

• Encrypt sensitive PII.

• Enforce strict vulnerability management.

📌 What Happened:
State-sponsored hackers stole data from all 3 billion Yahoo accounts.

⚡ Impact:

• Largest identity breach in history.

• Names, emails, passwords, and security questions compromised.

🔍 How It Happened:
Weak security measures and lack of advanced monitoring.

🛠 Tools & Techniques Used:

• Credential theft.

• Forged cookies for account access.

📉 Final Outcome:
Yahoo’s valuation dropped by $350M during Verizon acquisition.

📖 Source: Wikipedia

🛡 How to Overcome:

• Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA).

• Encrypt passwords with strong hashing algorithms.

• Regular penetration testing.

📌 What Happened:
Hackers accessed 117 million LinkedIn user accounts.

⚡ Impact:

• Email IDs and weakly hashed passwords leaked on the dark web.

• Widespread credential stuffing attacks.

🔍 How It Happened:
Poor hashing (SHA-1 without salting).

🛠 Tools & Techniques Used:

• Brute-force cracking of SHA-1 hashes.

• Credential reuse attacks.

📉 Final Outcome:
Users’ credentials widely resold; LinkedIn forced massive password reset.

📖 Source: LinkedIn Hack – Wikipedia

🛡 How to Overcome:

• Strong hashing (bcrypt/argon2).

• User education on unique passwords.

• Deploy password breach detection systems.

📌 What Happened:
Hackers compromised Sony’s PSN, exposing 77 million accounts.

⚡ Impact:

• Customer names, addresses, login credentials, and credit card details exposed.

• Service downtime of 23 days.

🔍 How It Happened:
SQL injection attack on poorly secured servers.

🛠 Tools & Techniques Used:

• SQL injection.

• Exploitation of outdated security practices.

📉 Final Outcome:
Sony paid $171M+ in costs and faced regulatory fines.

📖 Source: Wikipedia

🛡 How to Overcome:

• Secure coding practices.

• Regular vulnerability assessments.

• Tokenization of payment data.

📌 What Happened:
Hackers stole credentials of a third-party HVAC vendor, gaining access to Target’s payment systems.

⚡ Impact:

• 40 million credit and debit cards compromised.

• 70 million records of PII stolen.

🔍 How It Happened:
Stolen third-party vendor credentials → internal network access → malware on POS systems.

🛠 Tools & Techniques Used:

• Stolen vendor credentials.

• Memory-scraping malware.

📉 Final Outcome:
Target incurred $162M in expenses; executives resigned.

📖 Source: Target Breach – Wikipedia

🛡 How to Overcome:

• Implement zero-trust network security.

• Strong vendor risk management.

• Continuous monitoring of endpoints.