When you experience a cybersecurity incident, it’s no laughing matter. But occasionally, cyberattacks you weren’t at the brunt end of can be surprisingly funny — especially when threat actors in the digital realm make creative choices.
Don’t be the butt of the joke
Even the most intriguing cybersecurity incidents aren’t funny when they happen to you. PDQ Connect helps detect, prioritize, and remediate vulnerabilities to reduce your attack surface. In just a few clicks, you can fortify your security posture and rest easy.
Operation Cupcake
Back in 2011, British intelligence agency MI6 reportedly launched a cyberwarfare attack targeting Al-Qaeda. But this attack was nothing like the tension and drama you’d expect from your favorite British spy movies. In fact, it was much more like what you’d expect from The Great British Bake Off.
That’s because this operation was dubbed Operation Cupcake. That’s right: MI6 seized the opportunity to replace bombmaking instructions from Al-Qaeda's online English-language magazine with a recipe for mojito cupcakes. We’re sure the flavor was explosive.
Thunderstruck
Discovered in 2010, Stuxnet was one of the most famous (and possibly the first) cyberwarfare weapons of the digital age. Thought to be developed by U.S. and Israeli intelligence, this worm thwarted uranium enrichment in Iran by damaging centrifuges. Basically, it overloaded centrifuges by speeding them up so they’d overheat. On the surface, nearly everything looked normal. Centrifuges were just failing at an unusually high rate.
I know what you’re thinking — that’s not funny at all. But we failed to mention one unusual detail: AC/DC’s Thunderstruck also reportedly blared at random intervals across the facility around the same time.
It seems like an unusual decision to combine covert malware with hard-to-ignore music, so we have some questions. And those questions will probably never be answered due to the secretive nature of, well, everything and everyone involved. But the idea of incorporating a significant musical element in a cyberattack does make us chuckle.
Fingerprints
Most cybercriminals try to avoid leaving digital fingerprints on their work. But one cyber threat actor reportedly went ahead and uploaded their actual fingerprints. In 2018, the cybersecurity company Darktrace uncovered that a hacker had exploited a vulnerability in fingerprint scanners at a luxury goods business in an attempt to access the warehouse, deleting authorized fingerprints and replacing them with their own.
Thankfully, the system quickly picked up that one scanner was behaving differently, and the security team was on it in minutes ... and they had some pretty strong evidence of who might be behind the scam.
Marriott blackmail
Getting a job in IT isn’t always easy. But as a general rule, we recommend building a strong IT resume, getting relevant IT certifications, and practicing IT interview questions. Blackmail really should be toward the bottom of your list of potential strategies to use for your job search.
But in 2010, a Hungarian hacker reportedly attempted to snag a job via this untraditional method. After accessing valuable information on Marriott’s computers, he threatened to share the sensitive data unless Marriott gave him an IT job. When the hacker arrived for the supposed job interview, he was greeted by a U.S. Secret Service agent and later sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Fish tank
All too often, internet of things (IoT) devices are rife with security flaws, creating data security issues due to the risk of lateral movement across computer systems. But while businesses may be aware of potential risks associated with internet-connect security systems, point-of-sale systems, HVAC systems, and other common IoT devices, it’s easy to forget that seemingly innocuous objects can also provide an entry point for cybercrime, putting your business in hot water.
But hackers really made a splash when they reportedly hacked a fish tank at a casino in 2017. Granted, it was a high-tech fish tank that connected to the internet for easier monitoring and control, but fish tanks rarely make the list of top cyber threats. The incident soon bubbled over into a data breach, with criminals attempting to quickly exfiltrate sensitive information.
Cybersecurity company Darktrace again stepped in and detected the unusual activity. But the subtlety and unexpectedness of the attack highlights the need for online safety, comprehensive data protection, a digital defense strategy, online security awareness, and robust cybersecurity measures.
A good laugh at the misfortunes of others can be disconcertingly enjoyable. (After all, who can resist the occasional schadenfreude?)
That said, we don’t want sysadmins or security professionals to suffer through even the most hilarious cyberattack if there’s any way to avoid it. Sign up for a free 14-day trial of PDQ Connect to detect vulnerabilities in your environment and patch them in as little as one click. Improve your security posture in just minutes, and keep that sense of humor and pleasant disposition.
