Cyber fraud occurs hundreds of times a day worldwide, ranging from minor incidents to massive events precipitating lawsuits involving millions of dollars. According to the 2023 Internet Crime Complaint Center report, losses from internet fraud amounted to approximately $10.3 billion that year, and the figure continues to rise.

Here are three high-profile, controversial cybercrimes involving Hollywood stars, politicians, and ordinary people. We'll also provide advice on how to avoid becoming a data breach statistic.

The Ashley Madison data leak: suicides, divorces, lawsuits

Ashley Madison is a Canadian dating site that helps people who are already in relationships find new partners "on the side." The company's slogan is, "Life is short, have an affair." The platform quickly rose in popularity—from 2000 to 2014, the number of users reached 37 million.

In 2015, a group of hackers known as The Impact Team breached Ashley Madison, releasing a database containing the personal information of over 37 million people. This included email addresses, credit card numbers, intimate photos, and compromising messages. Among the compromised users was Ashley Madison’s CEO Noel Biderman, who resigned shortly after the scandal.

One of Ashley Madison’s weaknesses was insufficient data encryption. The exact method used by the criminals to hack the site remains unclear, but it is speculated that they used SQL injections, exploits for outdated software, and brute force attacks.

The hack had tragic consequences—reports indicate that some individuals committed suicide, many families were torn apart, and the company faced class-action lawsuits worth billions of dollars. Despite its tarnished reputation, Ashley Madison continues to operate—as of July 2024, the dating site still has over 60 million users.

The Hacking of Elon Musk’s and other celebrities’ Twitter accounts

In 2020, hackers took over the Twitter accounts of major businessmen, U.S. politicians, and celebrities and used them to promote a cryptocurrency scam.

One such message appeared on Elon Musk’s account, offering users to send money to cryptocurrency wallets with the promise of doubling their investment. In addition to Elon Musk, the accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Kanye West, and other celebrities were compromised.

The hackers used phishing and other manipulation techniques to trick Twitter employees into revealing their credentials, gaining access to the company’s internal systems. Then, they exploited Twitter’s administrative tools to change account settings and take control of the accounts.

Within hours of the hack, over 300 transfers totaling more than $110,000 were sent to the scammers’ wallets. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies conducted an investigation and arrested several individuals, including a 17-year-old from Florida who had been one of the main organizers of the attack.

Twitter conducted an internal investigation, which uncovered security vulnerabilities in their system. The company announced measures to enhance protection and prevent similar incidents in the future.

The iCloud celebrity photo leak

In September 2014, a massive leak of the personal photos and videos of celebrities occurred, after their iCloud accounts got compromised. This incident became known as "The Fappening" or "Celebgate."

Among those affected were Winona Ryder, Avril Lavigne, Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Kardashian, Kirsten Dunst, Rihanna, Scarlett Johansson, and others. Around 500 intimate images were stolen and leaked. The hackers sent targeted emails to the celebrities, disguised as official messages from Apple, requesting their credentials.

Additionally, they used brute force attacks to guess their passwords. At the time of the breach, iCloud lacked effective protection against brute force attacks, such as limiting login attempts or using two-factor authentication. The hackers used automated tools to guess passwords until they found the right ones.

Apple denied that there were any vulnerabilities in their systems but urged users to strengthen their security measures—use strong passwords and enable two-factor authentication. Following the incident, Apple introduced additional security measures to protect iCloud accounts.

Friendly advice from ispmanager

Use two-factor authentication and avoid using your birthdate as a password for important resources. If you need to protect data in work projects from breaches and leaks, BitNinja, a server security platform, can help. It protects against SQL injections, outbound spam attacks, cross-site scripting, viruses, and multiple connections.

Learn more about BitNinja →

Want more articles like this? Subscribe to our newsletter