Cynet turns back the pages of 2020 to review the most noteworthy cyberattacks making up the cyber-pandemic, which came with COVID-19 and the flight of employees to remote work environments. These cyber events were part of an ongoing series of attacks, keeping IT security professionals on high alert.

Many of these never made the headlines, but six major attacks did –including SolarWinds Attack, FireEye, Software AG, Sopra Steria, Telegram Hijack and BlackBaud.

The SolarWinds attack, for instance, involved hackers compromising the infrastructure of SolarWinds, a company that produces a network and application monitoring platform called Orion, and then using that access to produce and distribute trojanized updates to the software’s users.

On August 12, 2020 FireEye announced that a sophisticated group of hackers, likely state-sponsored, broke into its network and stole tools that the company’s experts developed to simulate real attackers and test the security of its customers. The attack was later found to be tied to SUNBURST malware which was also responsible for the SolarWinds attack.

Software AG, the second-largest software vendor in Germany, was reportedly hit by a ransomware attack in October 2020. News outlets reported that the German tech firm had been attacked by the Clop ransomware and that the cyber-criminal gang had demanded a $23 million ransom.

The 46,000 employee European information technology firm Sopra Steria announced on October 21, 2020 that it had detected a cyber attack the previous evening. The virus was identified as a new version of the Ryuk ransomware.

Hackers with access to the Signaling System 7 (SS7) used for connecting mobile networks across the world were able to gain access to Telegram messenger and email data of high-profile individuals in the cryptocurrency business.

Blackbaud, a cloud technology company, was hit by a data-stealing ransomware attack earlier this year. The attack was one of the biggest of the year in terms of the number of organizations affected, with nearly 200 organizations and millions of individuals potentially impacted.

“Because the reality is challenging and the future is not promising to be better in terms of cybersecurity threats and malicious attacks, cybersecurity pros must be prepared in the defense of their organization,” said Eyal Gruner, CEO and founder of Cynet.

“Going deeper into 2021, Cynet stands ready to support organizations and address these challenges to improve overall security readiness with next-generation XDR (EPP, NGAV, EDR, NDR, UBA), SOAR and advanced MDR services in a single platform,” Gruner added.