As the countdown to the New Year has begun the world gets

ready to say its goodbyes to 2015. We roll back the clocks and look into this

year’s most devastating hacking attacks, which resulted in huge financial

losses and data theft. Data breaches have put many organizations out of

business and many others are facing millions of dollar in fines from lawsuits

from their customers. Last year, hackers accessed more than one billion

personal records, most of which include personal information such as social

security numbers, banking codes, home addresses, emails, etc.

An upsetting thing

is year after year the number of such attacks are increasing.

According to a

by

incidents were detected than last year. The shortage of certified cyber

security professionals is a big reason why these attacks are on the rise. Most

of the organizations have no idea what policies should be followed to tackle

these threats. According to a survey by Global State of Information in Cybersecurity , this year, 38% more securityincidents were detected than last year. The shortage of certified cybersecurity professionals is a big reason why these attacks are on the rise. Mostof the organizations have no idea what policies should be followed to tacklethese threats.

Here we bring you some of the

list of 10 most destructive hacking attacks the world have seen in 2015. We

rate these attacks according to their severity and how much organization

suffered after its aftermath. Check

out our Top 10 List:

1.

Talk Talk



British history, with more than 157,000 customers records stolen by the

hackers. The records include personal details such as bank account numbers,

sort codes, credit and debit card numbers. This attack on Talk Talk website

happened on 21st of October and it is believed that teenagers are behind this

devastating attack. The company suffered £35 Million in losses as the result of

malicious users This is one of the most devastating hacking attack inBritish history, with more than 157,000 customers records stolen by thehackers. The records include personal details such as bank account numbers,sort codes, credit and debit card numbers. This attack on Talk Talk websitehappened on 21st of October and it is believed that teenagers are behind thisdevastating attack. The company suffered £35 Million in losses as the result ofmalicious users exploiting

a SQL Injection vulnerability

2.

Ashley Madison

Another big story of the year is the Ashely Madison Hack. An

online dating site with a motto “Life is Short. Have an affair” has seen the

identities and passwords of its 11 million users stolen. The CEO of the company

had to step down as the result of this much hyped hack attack, which was the

most talked about thing this summer. The Ashley Madison parent company faces a

law suite of $760M as a result of this data breach. Many customers of Ashley

Madison received an email from spammers demanding ransoms, else their

information will be leaked online.

3.

CIA Director Hacked

The personal email account of John Brennan, the director of

CIA was also hacked. The FBI and Secret service treated this as a very

sensitive hacking incident because of the nature of the account and to whom it

was associated with. The person who claimed the responsibility of this hack on

CNN is an American but has yet to be arrested by the FBI.

4.

Anthem Health Insurance

The second biggest health insurance company in the United

States also fell victim to cyber criminals this year. The hack has affected

more than 70 million Anthem customers. The hackers stole names, date of births

and social security numbers. The company assured its customers that their

financial details such as bank accounts and credit card numbers have not been compromised.

5.

Vodafone



criminals this year. According to a statement released by the company in

October a group of hackers managed to gain access to sensitive information of

about 1,827 Vodafone customers. The stolen email addresses and passwords have

been

leaked as well. This news came to light just after the hack of Talk Talk, which

has raised many concerns about the security of the British telecom and

broadband operators. Telecom giant Vodafone was also the target of cybercriminals this year. According to a statement released by the company inOctober a group of hackers managed to gain access to sensitive information ofabout 1,827 Vodafone customers. The stolen email addresses and passwords havebeen sold

on dark web . It seems that the bank account details of the customers wereleaked as well. This news came to light just after the hack of Talk Talk, whichhas raised many concerns about the security of the British telecom andbroadband operators.

6.

Carphone Warehouse

The biggest UK phone retailer has also been targeted by

cyber criminals this year. In August Cardphone Warehouse were hacked and

hackers managed to access the personal records of around 2.4 million customers.

The company faced a lot of criticism from its customers for keeping the news secret

for 48 hours. The stocks of the company have been crashed when the news of hack

hits the media.

7.

LoopPay Samsung

Just after a month Samsung bought its payment system company

for $250M, LoopPay was hacked. The group behind this hack is Chinese dubbed as

‘Codoso Group’ or ‘Sunshock Group’, and for the 5 months no one in the company

had any idea that they were hacked. The company said that no user data has been

lost, despite the fact that it took them 5 months to notice that they were

hacked.

8.

JP Morgan, Chase and Brokerages

One of the biggest financial hacking incident in US history,

which started back in 2012 and was up and running until mid of 2015. A total number of 9 large financial

institutions were targeted in the United States, during this time. Hackers

manage to access information of more than 100 million customer’s and affected

80 million households. The three hackers behind this big hack were arrested and

were trialed in US Court in New York. This hacking incident is dubbed by many

as the “the largest theft of user data from a U.S. financial institution in

history.”

9.

US Army Official Website

Just hours after US President Obama called for new cyber

security laws in a summit held in Germany, the official website of the US Army

was taken down by Syrian hackers. Syrian

Electronic Army were the group who claimed the responsibility of the attack as

per their official twitter account. In this case, this was just a defacement

and no data was stolen because the website did not contain sensitive.

10. Hilton Worldwide

Most probably the most famous hotel chain, with over 4,112

hotels in around 91 countries, Hilton has also been a victim of cyber-criminal

attacks this year. The credit cards information of many Hilton customers were stolen.

Hackers sold the credit card details and stolen information of Hilton customers

on the Darkweb, which resulted in many of its customers being victims of credit

card frauds.