The 4 Worst Cyberattacks in 2024 and How to Protect Your Business

It’s no secret that cybercrime is on the rise yearly. With an estimated 22% of businesses having experienced a cyberattack in 2024 alone, this should alarm you. After all, these attackers are after your assets and data; you must ensure you know everything possible about what you could be facing. 

The best way to do this is by making sure you know what has happened in the past. Knowledge on recent attacks raises awareness of current threats, so you know what to expect and what to look out for.

In this article, Extech Cloud outlines the four worst cyberattacks in 2024 (so far), to ensure that you know exactly what to do to protect your business.

The French State DDoS attack: A cross-border digital crisis 

In early 2024, French ministerial services were hit by heavy dedicated denial of service (DDoS) attacks – claimed to be committed by the Sudanese branch of the worldwide hacktivist collective Anonymous. A DDoS attack is an attack that sends lots of requests to a server to essentially overload it, causing denial of service and downtime to the server.

While DDoS attacks aren’t as invasive as other cyberattacks, but the downtime can be a major inconvenience for your employees and customers alike and can cripple your organisation.

A service like Microsoft Azure DDoS protection detects and blocks attacks that target your organisation ensure they don’t achieve their goal.

The NHS Scotland Ransomware Attack: Public Health in the crosshairs 

March 2024 brought a cyberattack on The National Health Service (NHS) in Dumfries and Galloway, causing a small number of patient files to become entangled in a ransomware attack. The attack was committed by the group Inc. Ransom.

This demonstrates that the public sector is not exempt but a major target for these kinds of attacks. Ensuring you’re protected as a public health organisation is vital, as you become an easy target for crippling public infrastructure.

The best way to counter a cyberattack using ransomware is by using software such as Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to proactively stamp out these threats and ensure they don’t escalate.

The HSE cyberattack aftermath: The ongoing impact of Ireland’s Healthcare Service 

Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) has had over 470 legal proceedings issued against it in relation to a cyberattack that crippled the service’s IT systems and leaked the data of thousands of patients and staff in 2021.

This attack was perpetrated by Conti, a Russian cybercrime group, and was the biggest-ever attack on a healthcare service worldwide. However, the litigation is due to the HSE’s poor security posture – there was a ‘known low level of cybersecurity maturity’ according to the report conducted by PwC on the attack.

With over 90,000 people affected by the incident whose data is now possibly anywhere on the dark web, there is surefire reason for individuals to be worried about the aftermath of the breach. This just goes to show how failing to prepare for a cyber incident can leave your organisation far worse off.

The whole HSE cyberattack and its aftermath should be a cautionary tale to any organisation failing to make sure it has a solid cybersecurity posture, as well as showing the dangers of flaunting compliance regulations and other cybersecurity standards that keep customers and their data safe from attackers.

26 billion record data breach: The Mother of All Breaches 

In early 2024, a Mother of All Breaches (MOAB) occurred when 26 billion records were leaked from LinkedIn, Twitter, Weibo, Tencent, and other platforms. This is the largest data breach ever discovered and was the product of a firewall misconfiguration. While it’s unclear who has the MOAB of 26 billion records, the perpetrator has a vested interest in large amounts of data.

This could make them a data broker, a hacker, or even a service that is using the data for its own benefit. It’s impossible to say, as this kind of data can be used in a multitude of different ways. From fraud and targeted attacks to phishing and even account access, it’s easy for anyone with this data to wreak havoc for lots of people worldwide.

This is especially dangerous as the leak contained passwords, which means that anyone who uses passwords between accounts is in danger. If your password is in the leak, it is now accessible and can be used on other platforms with the same password.

This is why it’s vital to make sure you don’t use the same password on multiple accounts and generate a new one for each account you create.

How we can help 

Cyberattacks are a real modern threat and making sure you’re aware of these is vital. By knowing about these attacks, you’ll be able to take decisive action and stop yourself from ending up in the same situation – or worse.

Looking to get started on strengthening your organisation’s security but don’t know how? Extech Cloud experts are here to help you get started with the wide away of security tools available to you, as well as providing around-the-clock support.

Get in touch with us now and see how we can help.