As the title suggests, hackers have expanded their attack landscape from tech industry to other industries that sound lucrative. There is not a day, in fact not an hour, that passes by without headlining a cyber crime occurring in some part of the world.

1. From Credit Cards to Power Plants
to Puppies - We Hack Everything

2. Credit/Debit Card Data Breaches
Information of around 76,000 Californian residents was posted online in March,
2014.
The information included American Express card account number, card's expiry
date, the date when the card became effective, and the four-digit code
printed on card's front.
• In March, Anonymous Ukraine, an offshoot of hacktivist group Anonymous,
released about 7 million records as a protest against financial institutions.
• This included 3,255,663 Visa records, 1,778,749 MasterCard records,
362,132 Discover records, and 668,279 American Express records.
• The group has also claimed to have more than 800 million records at its
disposal, and plans on using it as the next step.
• Office supply chain store Staples reported a card data breach impacting up
to 110 million customers.
• Hackers were able to steal customer card data from seven Staples outlets in
Pennsylvania, three in New York, and one in New Jersey.

3. • Card processor Heartland Payment Systems saw hackers siphon around
130 credit cards.
• In 2007, cyber criminals were able to steal 90 million cards from TJX (the
parent firm of T.J.Maxx).
• Recently, leading retailer Home Depot suffered a data breach involving 56
million compromised records in a period of 5 months.
• Retail giant Target also suffered from a card breach that saw 40 million
credit and debit cards, and personal information of 70 million users stolen.
• Neiman Marcus , a U.S. luxury store, was compromised of 1.1 million
records.

4. Espionage at Power Plants
• A group of cyber criminals from Russia targeted European and
American energy industry.
• The group dubbed as “Drangonfly” has been in operation from 2011.
• Its targets include energy grid operators, petroleum pipeline operators,
electricity generation firms, and energy industry industrial equipment
providers. The target countries include United States, Turkey, Poland,
Italy, France, Spain, and Germany.
• The group has a wide range of malware tools at its disposal and has the
ability to lauch attacks on different vectors.
• Dragonfly initially targeted aviation and defense firms in the United
States and Europe, before shifting its focus on the energy industry in
2013.
• On January 2, 2014, the Monju Nuclear Power Plant in Japan was
compromised. Hackers infiltrated into one of the eight systems in the
control room.

5. Online Puppy Scams
• The most recent scam type to make headlines is the online puppy
scams.
• Online sellers have started luring unsuspecting puppy lovers into buying
the four-legged creatures that do not exist.
• Recently, residents of New Lennox Maria and Abigali Polchinski were
cheated of their money by an online scam artist.
• Another consumer was not only charged for the puppy, but also was
asked to pay additional charges for the canine to be released from the
airport.
• Online puppy scams are believed to have originated from Europe or
Africa.

6. Other Data Breaches
• The Healthcare.gov site was breached on August 25, 2014. Although no
patients' informa was stolen, the breach impacted the test servers.
• The largest American bank JP Morgan Chase and Co was breached and
about 76 million households and 7 million small businesses were affected.
• The 'Backoff' malware was responsible for compromising 400 locations of
soft server and fast food restaurant chain Dairy Queen.
• Leading communication services AT&T reported that information belonging
to around 1,600 customers were stolen. The details included social security
number (SSN), driver's license number, and internal AT&T information.
• Personal details of more than 15,000 students of the North Dakota State
College of Science (NDSCS) was found compromised on September 1,
2014.
• About 500 Flinn Scientific customers have has their personal information
compromised in a malware attack on the firm's store on May 2, 2014.
• Lethargic behavior from Touchstone Medical Imaging Center led to the
compromise of personal inform of some patients billed before 2012.

7. For More Information About Data
Breaches Updates.
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