The biggest cybersecurity fails of 2022 – from AIIMS to Twitter

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Cyberattacks were a major concern in 2022, with over 22 billion records from 4,145 publicly disclosed breaches being reported. Some of the most significant and impactful attacks of the year included:

AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital: In November 2022, both of these hospitals in Delhi, India suffered cyberattacks. While officials at Safdarjung Hospital stated that the attack did not cause any significant damage, the server at AIIMS remained down for 11 days following the attack, and internet services remained blocked. There has been no further information provided by officials, faculty, or staff on the matter.

Twitter: In July 2022, data from 5.4 million Twitter accounts was put up for sale by a hacker using the name “devil.” The data included the phone numbers and email addresses of various companies, celebrities, and other accounts. The hack was made possible by a vulnerability discovered on Twitter in January of that year. More recently, another hacker known as “Ryushi” claimed to have compromised the personal data of over 400 million Twitter users, including celebrities such as Salman Khan, Sundar Pichai, Charlie Puth, and Donald Trump Jr.

Revolut: In September 2022, a data breach at financial technology company Revolut exposed the personal information of more than 50,000 users. The breach involved third-party access to the company’s database and included names, email addresses, and partial payment card information. Once the breach was discovered, the Lithuanian government stated that Revolut had taken “prompt action” to stop the incident and eliminate the attacker’s access to customer data.

Uber : In September 2022, Uber, a rideshare company, was the victim of a cyberattack, where a HackerOne account was seen responding to bug submissions and taunting the company.

Rockstar: In September 2022, Rockstar, a video game company, suffered cyberattacks – with a data breach that resulted in footage of an upcoming GTA game being leaked.

WhatsApp: In November 2022, a hacker attempted to sell data from 500 million WhatsApp users on the dark web. The data included the phone numbers of users from India, the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Turkey, France, and Italy.