Five of the Most Prolific Cybercrimes that Remain a Mystery

Cybercrimes are a dime a dozen, but some have risen to the top as being more nefarious, more bizarre, or more widespread than others. And many of these, to this day, remain unsolved. Consider these cybercrime “whoppers” that are remain unsolved years later:

Blackmail Gone Wrong

One of the best known credit card breaches occurred in January 2000, right after the relief of surviving the Y2K transition. The breach was, in a way, a mistake, when an intended blackmail plot misfired and resulted in the release of more than 300,000 credit card numbers on a website titled “The Maxus Credit Card Pipeline.” The hacker intended to destroy the data after blackmailing CDUniverse.com, but the numbers still managed to get posted.

Activist Hacking

If you think cybercrimes are a relatively new development, think again. The first hacking crime related to activism occurred in 1989, targeted NASA, and still remains unsolved. The WANK Worm attacked an office in Greenbelt, Maryland and caused a banner to appear across the computer systems in an effort to protest the launch the Galileo probe. Reports are the cleanup after the hack cost as much as half a million dollars.

To learn more about “hactivism” and how it has been used over the years, check out these stories from the Huffington Post.

Risky Shopping

Most consumers assume they put their personal security and financial well-being at risk every time they make a purchase nowadays, and the supermarket security breach in 2008 proves it. The breach resulted in the theft of at least 1800 credit card numbers and exposed more than four million numbers publicly. The event was unlike previous credit card breaches because the stores involved did not use wireless credit transfer systems and to this day, law enforcement and store officials are still unable to determine how the breach occurred.

Election Hijinks

You might think the 2016 presidential election is the most controversial yet (you might be right), but sabotage and misdirection have long been part of elections. In 2003, a hacker replaced the CBSNews.com homepage with Dennis Kucinich’s campaign logo and visitors were automatically redirected to a campaign video. Kucinich’s campaign denied involvement in the hack.

Information Stolen from Cable Subscribers

As if consumers needed another reason to be unhappy with their cable provider, a 2008 hack resulted in the theft of account information from Comcast subscribers. The hack was the work of the Kryogeniks group and altered the Comcast’s homepage, forcing it to redirect the webmail page to the hacker’s site where information could be stolen.

It is presumed these crimes were committed by high-level hackers, and it is unlikely a person could accidentally stumble into something this sever. However, there are plenty of instances in which a person’s intentions are good, but the ultimate outcome of their actions appears to be criminal.

If law enforcement has assumed the worst about you and your online activity, David Lindsey can help. For more information or to find out if you have a reason to be concerned about your situation, contact David to schedule a consultation.