2022: a year in cyber incidents

December 15, 2022
by Triston

What a year 2022 has been! From the fallout of the COVID pandemic still lingering (including Partygate), Storm Eunice, Russia invading Ukraine, the Queens Platinum Jubilee, Summer heatwaves and droughts, two new prime ministers, the death of the Queen, strikes and the raising cost of living crisis, we’ve seen another year of significant change.

2022 has also continued to be another significant year regarding cyber security breaches with more breaches targeting Health and Education.

Some of the most significant UK incidents this year are outlined below:

January	– Safestyle UK hit by cyber attack. – Parents warned after ‘data breach’ at Whitby High secondary school. – Payroll firms Parasol and Brookson hacked leaving thousands without wage payments.
February	– KP Snacks suffers major cyber incident. – Foreign Office target of ‘serious cyber incident’. – British Council students data exposed in Major Breach.
March	– Rail company c2c affected by cyber attack disrupting ticket bookings and purchasing. – Greencore hit by data breach – leaking bank details and insurance numbers.
April	– Emma Sleep company confirms payment card skimming attack. – The Works forced to close some stores due to ‘cyber attack’. – Currency.com denial of service attack.
May	– Graham and Brown suffer a cyber attack compromising hundred of staff personal details. – NHS suffers phishing attacks compromising over 100 user accounts. – Cornwall council accidentally publishes children’s personal information online.
June	– Yodel services disrupted by a cyber incident. – Apetito / Wiltshire Farm Foods hit by ransomware attack.
July	– Durham School – thousands of children’s private data leaked to the dark web. – Marriot International data breach. – British Army YouTube and Twitter accounts hacked.
August	– Architecture firm Sheppard Robson reports a ransomware attack. – NHS 111 suffers cyber attacks linked to cyber criminals. – South Staffs Water and Cambridge Water targeted in cyber attack
September	– Inter Continental Hotels booking system offline after network breach. – Eurocell employee details exposed in a cyber attack. – Newport city council hit by cyber attack. – Uber suffers a major cybersecurity breach. – Revolut hit by phishing scam with personal details of more than 50k compromised.
October	– Liz Truss’s mobile number leaked and sold online. – Kingfisher Insurance IT systems breached. – Bristol City Council apologises for data breach in response to Clean Air Zone applications – Bishop of Hereford’s Bluecoat school suffers a cyber attack.
November	– Royal Mails website suspended due to a data breach. – Dropbox source code copied after a phishing attack. – Park View school in Tottenham closed for 3 days after a cyber attack. – Silverstone racing circuit investigates ransomware attack.
December	Rackspace hosted Email hit by ransomware causing massive outage affecting thousands of customers. Uber Suffers new data breach after attack on vendor.

It’s not just the big companies under attack

Whilst typically larger businesses take the headlines, smaller businesses are just as targeted and fall victim to cyber-attacks.

The UK government estimates that 36% of micro and 48% of small businesses have suffered similar breaches in the past year, however, a similar poll by Insurance firm Markel Direct of 1000 sole-trader and small businesses found the number of businesses that have experienced a breach was closer to 51%!

What will 2023 look like?

With many economic and geopolitical challenges looking to continue into next year, we can certainly expect to see further challenges for businesses on the horizon from expected cyber-attacks. For smaller businesses, these are more likely to be in the form of increased fraud and data theft-related attacks. Additionally, more sophisticated methods of delivery, or to circumvent security are more likely to be deployed.

The good news is that there are lots even sole traders and small business owners can do to help protect themselves. In our next article, we’ll explore some of the likely top threats for 2023 and what sole traders and Small-Medium Businesses can do to protect themselves.

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Triston

Beard sporting, food lover who’s passionate about protecting businesses. Combining his practical 15 years’ experience with a supportive and holistic approach to managing cyber risks, compliance and data protection. His goal? Building great security cultures and practises, giving businesses something to shout about when it comes to their information security.