We are nearing the end of 2016, a year of many landmarks in cyber security, with record-breaking cyber attacks almost on a monthly basis.
CBR sorts through the major attacks to tell you what happened and why it matters.
1. Russia and the US election
Hacking goes political
2016 saw the widely unexpected election of business tycoon and reality television personality Donald Trump as the next President of the US.
The bitterly fought election campaign also raised important cyber security questions as a number of hacks on the candidates were publicised.
The Democratic National Committee saw its private emails stolen in a breach and released on the website Wikileaks. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta was hacked by an apparent phishing attack and saw his emails released publicly, again by Wikileaks.
The Democratic Party was also hit by a cyber attack on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which may have compromised the details of donors.
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There were also believed to be hacks on the Republican Party, including into email accounts.
These hacks have remained talking points since the election, mainly because of suspicion that the Russian state was involved.
Security firms appeared to find evidence linking the hacks to Russian domain names. The US intelligence firm the CIA said that it believed the Russian state had been involved, and President Barack Obama has ordered a full review of possible Russian hacking of the election.
At the time of writing, there is no publicly available evidence that the Russian state was involved, but expect the attribution of these attacks to be a major theme in coming months.
