October 2024: Biggest Cyber Attacks, Data Breaches..

October 2024 was a busy month for attackers. Ransomware, credential theft and data leaks affected utilities, retailers, healthcare providers and public services worldwide.

Headline incidents

• Internet Archive: a breach exposed data from millions of user accounts and was followed by DDoS attacks that took the service offline.
• American Water: the largest US water utility took customer portals offline after detecting unauthorised access to its systems.
• Casio: a ransomware attack disrupted internal systems and exposed employee and business data.
• Change Healthcare: updated figures confirmed that its earlier breach affected around 100 million people.

Lessons for every organisation

• Patch internet-facing systems quickly and track third-party exposure.
• Enforce multi-factor authentication, especially for remote and admin access.
• Keep tested, offline backups and a rehearsed incident response plan.
• Train staff to spot phishing, the entry point for many of these attacks.

Every incident is a reminder that preparation beats reaction. Proaktive Defense helps teams build the skills and processes to detect, contain and recover from attacks.