Top 7 Cyber Attacks in the United States

The United States has developed into a particularly dangerous landscape in terms of cyberattacks, whether against businesses or critical infrastructure. Last year alone, the Internet Crime Complaint Center of the FBI received over 880,418 complaints, recording potential losses of more than USD 12.5 billion. The cyber attacks which were considered isolated once, are now a full-blown threat that is disrupting crucial services, endangering sensitive data, and threatening the stability of key sectors, including healthcare and energy. The speed of these attacks shows us that U.S. systems have critical vulnerabilities, and businesses and government agencies should not wait to protect their assets. The article will outline the major types of cyber attacks in the United States, their underlying motivations, and the devastating consequences on various industries. We’ll also examine prominent cyber crime cases in the United States, review recent incidents, and evaluate the current state of protection for vital systems.

Finally, we’ll discuss the private sector’s role in combating cybercrime in the United States and outline essential cyber attack prevention strategies and tools to mitigate these ever-present threats.

What is a Cyberattack?

A cyberattack is as intentional and vicious as an attempt to compromise, incapacitate, or destroy electronic systems. These cyber-attacks, amid a changing technological environment, keep mocking even the most basic levels of security to large-scale functionality of networks. From 2022 to 2023, there was an increased number of cyber incidents by more than 15%. This highlights a significant rise in HTTP DDoS attacks, along with other recurrent cyber threats, such as phishing and ransomware that continue to impact individuals and organizations.

Cyberattacks can range from minor data breaches to full-scale system failures. For example, ransomware might lock users out of their data, whereas DDoS simply overloads servers with traffic until they cease to respond. The damage extends well beyond financial loss in the way it threatens privacy, cuts off essential services, and erodes trust in digital infrastructures.

What Motivates Hackers to Launch Cyber Attacks?

The motivation behind cyber attacks in the United States​ is the key to crafting effective defenses. In fact, motivations for cybercrime range from profit to ideological reasons.

In this section, we have mentioned several factors which motivate hackers to commit cyber attacks:

1. Financial Benefit: The most frequent motive for cybercrime is economic gain. Attackers look for monetary returns through practices such as ransomware and fraud. They may steal personal information, sell it on the dark web, or extort companies by encrypting critical data. Indeed, as depicted by reports, 95 percent of data breaches are financially motivated, pointing to financial allure driving cybercriminals.
2. Espionage: State-sponsored hackers attack government and private sectors to steal sensitive information for political or competitive advantage. Espionage attacks involve infiltration into government agencies or major corporations to breach classified or proprietary information, with devastating effects on national security and the economy.
3. Ideological Reasons (Hacktivism): Some groups are politically or socially motivated and conduct cyber attacks to further their cause or to protest against policies. Groups like Anonymous hack organizations whose actions are contrary to their opinions and ideologies, bringing about social or political change by disrupting services or divulging sensitive information.
4. Disruption and Sabotage: Some cyber-attacks are designed to be highly disruptive, like denial-of-service attacks against infrastructure. The purpose of these is to bring services to their knees, whether that means taking a government website offline or bringing all operations at a large energy provider to a halt. Such an attack may potentially paralyze critical systems, create long-term operational damage, and cause financial loss.
5. Revenge or Retribution: Some cyber attacks are driven by retaliation from disgruntled employees or insiders against organizations. Attackers of this nature use their inside knowledge to cause damage, either by deleting critical files or making confidential data public. Insider threats tend to be more dangerous because they emanate from within the entity that has valid access, making their actions more difficult to detect.

Major Types of Cyber Attacks Targeting the U.S.

The United States increasingly suffers from different types of cyberattacks, from simple to sophisticated ones, where each of them poses a different kind of challenge and threat to the security posture.

Major types of cyberattacks, their modes, impacts, and consequences on critical systems and infrastructure are discussed in this section.

1. Ransomware Attacks: Ransomware continued to be at the top of the cyber threat list, with over 72% of cybersecurity attacks driven by it in 2023. Ransomware is a class of attack that involves attackers encrypting data on victims’ systems and then making the data available only to victims once they have paid the attacker a ransom. Attacks of this kind are particularly dangerous to the healthcare and energy sectors as disruptions to hospital systems or utility services would be extremely disruptive to people’s everyday lives.
2. Phishing and Spear Phishing: One of the most common forms of cyber fraud is phishing, as an estimated 3.4 billion spam emails per day are sent. Attacks of this kind trick the recipients into revealing sensitive information or, unknowingly, delivering malware. Spear phishing reaches even further by targeting specific people, with personal details being used for an appearance of trust, making it more dangerous.
3. Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks: DDoS attacks are becoming more common, particularly in financial institutions and government websites, as they overwhelm servers with traffic, rendering legitimate access impossible. These attacks have caused huge disruptions in banks, trading platform operations, and critical financial systems and services.
4. Supply Chain Attacks: Attackers take advantage of loopholes in third-party vendors to compromise bigger targets. In such supply chain attacks, by affecting one vendor, attackers can easily infiltrate highly sensitive systems or data of organizations dependent on them. These attacks have a large impact, sometimes hitting multiple businesses at once in an industry. Supply chain security has become one of today’s top priorities in mitigating these threats.
5. Man-in-the-Middle Attacks: Man-in-the-middle attacks occur when attackers intercept and manipulate critical data during transmission. An attacker can sniff or alter important data being transmitted over an unsecured network. This is particularly effective in financial transactions where sensitive information may be hijacked.
6. Zero-Day Exploits: Attackers use zero-day vulnerabilities, which are unknown security flaws in software, with devastating consequences. Since no patches are provided, there is a window, which allows an attacker to enter the systems and remain undetected. High-profile attacks leveraging zero-day exploits target software like Windows or web browsers, making them an emerging threat.

Impact of Cyber Attacks on U.S. National Security and Economy

Cyber attacks in the United States expose the country to eminent national and economic security, in addition to a wide range of sectors. This section looks at implications for some of the major areas within a nation’s infrastructure where vulnerabilities may arise, leading to further disruption.

1. Threats to National Security: Network breaches that expose confidential government data, or that threaten our critical infrastructure pose a direct threat to national security. Breach of federal agencies and military networks can undermine national defense, damage capabilities, and expose sensitive information. Therefore, cybersecurity is an important component of national defense strategy.
2. Economic Costs: The estimated global financial loss due to cybercrime exceeds 8 trillion dollars in 2023 alone. The attacks are targeted at large corporates and SMEs and even bring their operations to a grinding halt, causing huge losses both in terms of finance and reputation. Cyberattacks effectively translate into direct losses due to theft or ransom payments and indirect ones like reputational harm and business interruption.
3. Damage to the Public Interest: High-profile breaches result in the loss of confidence in governmental and corporate entities by the general public, making recovery after such incidents difficult. When sensitive personal information is leaked, citizens lose confidence in an organization’s ability to protect personal data which is a situation that can affect customer loyalty and brand reputation for some time.
4. Supply Chain Disruptions: Cyber attacks result in huge business disruptions, affecting issues related to product availability and operational efficiency. Many supply chain attacks have targeted software providers, indirectly affecting a host of industries dependent on these technologies. Such disruptions underline the interdependence of contemporary business operations.
5. Critical Infrastructure Risks: Cyber threats against energy grids, water supplies, and healthcare systems highlight vulnerabilities that have the potential to disrupt daily life. A successful attack against critical infrastructure could create disastrous results: citywide power blackouts or the inability to offer basic health services. These threats call for strong defense mechanisms to secure such important systems.

Key Sectors Affected by Cyber Attacks in the United States

Some industries do hold more technical risks due to the type of data they maintain or their role in national infrastructure. This makes these industries very attractive targets for cyber attackers in search of vulnerabilities to leverage for financial benefit or disruption.

The following section discusses some of the industries most victimized by cyber threats, their particular challenges, and the effect of such an attack.

1. Healthcare Industry:  During the period between 2009 and 2023, there have been 5,887 data breaches in the healthcare sector involving the compromise of 500 or more records. Patient data has become a lucrative target for ransomware attacks and identity fraud, which shows the dramatic vulnerability of medical systems and networks all over the world to cyberattacks. Such hacks compromise sensitive medical records, delay surgery, and disrupt patient care, putting lives at risk. It is because of this sensitivity that the health sector remains one of the biggest targets for cybercrime or immediate cybersecurity attention.
2. Financial Services: Banks and financial institutions are targeted time and again by cyber-attacks due to the free flow of sensitive financial data between them. Most of these attacks have been motivated by financial gains, leaving a trail of irreparable financial and reputational damages either through extortion of funds or stealing personal information. For this reason, regulators are adopting increased scrutiny in this sector by pushing for stricter cybersecurity measures that would protect customer information and promote stability within the financial system.
3. Government Agencies: There are increased attacks on systems at the federal, state, and local levels of government, usually for espionage or sabotage. Breaches in any government agency could mean compromising national security, disrupting public services, and exposing sensitive information. Certain sectors rely on old technologies, making these agencies more exposed and vulnerable to sophisticated cyber threats.
4. Energy and Utilities: Cyber-attacks on energy infrastructure can be disastrous, especially when critical systems are breached. Their vulnerabilities make these networks a hot target for attackers. Strengthening cybersecurity measures can help prevent widespread disruptions and maintain operational resiliency in energy.
5. The Education Sector: Cyberattacks are much more dangerous when they infiltrate critical systems within the education sector since they disrupt learning environments and can expose sensitive data. This shows why educational networks are such a prized target for an attacker. Keeping cybersecurity strong is very crucial in an educational institution in order to avoid major disruptions, data theft, or discontinuation of academic activities. 
6. Retail and E-commerce: The increased rise in online shopping has made retailers one of the main targets of hackers. Most hackers target the payment system and customer data. Financial losses, regulatory fines, and reduced consumer confidence can occur in the case of a breach in this sector. The retail industry must make significant investments in cybersecurity to protect transactional data and consumer privacy.

High-Profile Cyber Attacks in the U.S.: Case Studies

This section provides brief information on a few cyber crime cases in the United States with emphasis on the media coverage. These cases help us understand the weaknesses revealed in these attacks and contain important information about the steps organizations must take to prepare and improve their IT security. 

1. Colonial Pipeline Attack: A ransomware attack in 2021 inflicted significant damage to the Eastern U.S., causing widespread fuel shortages and exposing the weaknesses of critical infrastructure. The breach had occurred due to a compromised password that allowed the attackers to take over and shut down pipeline operations. This incident raised an alarm for serious steps toward protection in critical infrastructure, including multi-factor authentication, so that such unauthorized access cannot be allowed.
2. Solar Wind Breach: Discovered at the end of 2020, this supply-chain attack targeted several government agencies and Fortune 500 companies. Attackers implanted malignant code in the software updates of Solar Wind, thereby gaining access to an enormous amount of networks. The exposure highlighted the great supply-chain dependencies risks and overhauled that third-party risk shall be assessed way more aggressively, and any vendor’s security practices oversight shall be enhanced.
3. Ransomware Attack on JBS Foods: One of the world’s largest meat products manufacturers, JBS Foods, went under a ransomware attack in 2021. Due to this, the company had to pay a ransom of US$ 11 million for system restoration. This highlighted differences that exist in the food supply chain across the globe and how ransomware impacts essential services. JBS decided to pay the ransom so that operations could be restored as quickly as possible and further damage to business could be limited.
4. Twitter Hack: In 2020, social engineering attacks compromised high-profile accounts of politicians, celebrities, and tech leaders. The attackers used such accounts to promote a cryptocurrency scam, inflicting deep damage on Twitter’s brand. The hack revealed the vulnerabilities in the social media platforms’ processes and the potential for insider threats.
5. LAUSD Ransomware Attack: Los Angeles Unified School District was the latest victim of a ransomware attack in 2022, disrupting education services to thousands of students. Many online learning platforms and administrative systems were attacked, and so there were significant delays in the process. This further alerted the educational institutions and stressed the need for stringent cybersecurity measures in schools.

7 Recent Cyber Attacks in the United States

This section details recent cyber attacks in the U.S. that show how often and in what ways these attacks are becoming increasingly different. The goal is to inform businesses or individuals how cyber attacks have increasingly targeted U.S. government bodies and are impacting various infrastructures.

1. Exposure to the U.S. Government Campaign (August 2024): U.S. government officials say Iranian hackers broke into the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. Hackers also attempted to break into the Biden-Harris campaign, offering stolen Trump campaign documents to the opposition. This attack exemplifies the ongoing threats to election integrity and the risk of foreign interference in U.S. democratic processes.
2. European Allies Targeted by Chinese Hackers (March 2024): An indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that Chinese hackers attacked some EU members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China and Italian MPs. The attack aimed to map IP addresses to track the locations of targeted officials, underlining the international dimension of cyber espionage activities.
3. Russian-Linked Global Cyberattack (June 2023): A worldwide cyber attack targeted several agencies within the U.S. federal government, including the Department of Energy. The attackers exploited a vulnerability in software used globally to breach many government systems. This intrusion highlighted the weakness in commonly used software and the importance of timely updates and patches.
4. Breach of Guam Communications Network (May 2023): Chinese hackers infiltrated the communications networks of a U.S. outpost in Guam by using legitimate credentials, making detection very challenging. This indicates the use of compromised credentials and the need for robust identity verification processes to keep sensitive systems out of hackers’ reach.
5. Iranian Hackers Attack Critical Infrastructure (April 2023): A series of attacks by Iranian state-linked hackers using customized dropper malware hit critical infrastructures in the United States and other countries. First spotted back in 2014, the group had been waging attacks in line with geopolitical interests, underlining the continued threat that state-sponsored actors pose to national infrastructures.
6. Vietnamese Cyberespionage Campaign (March 2023): The CISA and FBI announced that hackers identified as a Vietnamese espionage group hacked into a U.S. federal agency between November 2022 and January 2023 as part of a cyberespionage campaign. Hackers exploited a bug in the agency’s Microsoft IIS server to deploy malware and exfiltrate sensitive information. The incident demonstrated the high risks associated with unpatched bugs in popular software.
7. Increased Cases of Hacking Using Remote Access Software (January 2023): CISA, the NSA, and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center issued a joint advisory regarding increased hacks on the federal civilian executive branch using remote access software. This follows an October 2022 report on a financially motivated phishing campaign against multiple U.S. federal civilian executive branch agencies, highlighting the vulnerabilities in remote access solutions and the need to secure these against unauthorized use.

Cyber Attack Prevention Measures in the United States

Preventing cyber-attacks requires multiple layers of defense and coordination with all stakeholders. This section briefs on the key prevention strategies undertaken across the U.S., covering government initiatives as well as industry best practices.

1. National Cyber Strategy: The government’s program focuses on building up the cyberinfrastructure through funding initiatives for cybersecurity improvement. It emphasizes resilience development with minimum standards outlined in strategic sectors, provides incentives to follow good security practices, and aims to secure the nation’s assets.
2. Public-Private Partnerships: Public-private partnerships help share intelligence and best practices through collaborative engagement between the government and the private sector. Public-private partnerships have proven effective in establishing a collective defense mechanism because shared information among stakeholders leads to better and more proactive threat detection and response strategies.
3. Critical Infrastructure Protection: This focus has resulted in boosting cybersecurity through several regulations and investments in energy, finance systems, and healthcare. Industries classified as ‘Critical Infrastructure’ have been provided with strict cybersecurity parameters to protect essential services from cybercrimes with potentially national-level impacts.
4. Increased Investment in Cyber Education: Training programs are expanded to develop a workforce of cybersecurity professionals. Initiatives such as the CyberCorps Scholarship for Service seek to train and educate the next generation of cybersecurity professionals with the skills needed to deal with increasing cyber threats.
5. Adoption of Zero Trust Architectures: The Zero Trust security model reduces the risk of lateral movement in the event of a breach. Zero Trust focuses on the verification of each user and device before access is granted, limiting the damage once a network is compromised. Recently, this approach has been adopted by government entities and private concerns.
6. Incident Response Frameworks: The development of national incident response frameworks ensures a prompt, well-coordinated response to cyber incidents. These frameworks aim to formalize detection, mitigation, and recovery from cyber-attacks, ensuring minimal impact and downtime.

Role of the Private Sector in Defending Against Cyber Attacks

The private sector is one of the major sectors that make up the cybersecurity ecosystem in the United States. This section examines how businesses contribute to cyber defense efforts and the importance of their collaboration with public entities.

1. Investment in cybersecurity solutions: Private companies are investing more in advanced solutions, such as AI-driven threat detection, to protect against sophisticated attacks. Technologies such as machine learning and behavioral analytics help identify anomalies in network activity, providing early warnings before attacks can escalate.
2. Adoption of Industrial Standards: NIST and ISO frameworks are being embraced by most organizations to standardize and improve the practices related to cybersecurity in their respective organizations. Maintaining consistency across various industries by standards is the key to protecting sensitive information and improving resilience against cyber threats.
3. CyberSecurity Awareness and Employee Training: Continuous training for employees is important in dealing with human error, a major cause of breaches, and educating staff on being able to recognize phishing and other forms of social engineering can reduce the vulnerability to cyber-attacks.
4. Cyber Threat Intelligence Sharing: Many firms share threat intelligence to build a bigger, wiser defense network. In exchanging threat intelligence, private companies create an environment in which timely and actionable information about potential threats can be highly beneficial for all the participants in the network.
5. Implement resilience strategies: Businesses turn towards resilience, meaning keeping their operations up even while under attack. Cybersecurity strategies are integrated with business continuity planning and disaster recovery solutions that keep an organization functioning during cyber incidents to minimize disruption.
6. Supporting Legislations: Usually, the private sector supports cyber response legislation that promotes a safer digital environment and simultaneously outlines a clear legal framework. In this regard, endorsing policies aimed at developing minimum cybersecurity standards contributes to the development of an ecosystem less vulnerable to cybercrime.

How SentinelOne Can Help?

SentinelOne offers a number of advanced security solutions to fight against cyber attacks in the United States (including other countries as well). Singularity™ Cloud Security can autonomously prevent, detect, and respond to cyber-attacks in real-time and at machine speed. It protects and empowers enterprises with enhanced visibility, cross-platform correlation, and AI-powered response across endpoints, cloud workloads, networks, and containers. It offers features such as comprehensive threat intelligence, rule-based detection, incident reports, threat-hunting capabilities, access controls, and more. With SentinelOne’s agentless CNAPP, you can get access to exclusive features like Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), Kubernetes Security Posture Management (KSPM), IaC scanning, secrets scanning, External Attack Surface & Management (EASM), vulnerability management, etc.

SentinelOne can reduce alert fatigue and manual triage for SOC & IT analysts by automatically correlating telemetry and mapping it to the MITRE ATT&CK® framework. It can simplify response and automate threat resolution with patented one-click remediation to reverse all unauthorized changes. SentinelOne’s patented Storyline™ technology automatically tracks all OS relationships, giving you full context and understanding of cyber attacks. NGAV and behavioral detection to stop known and unknown threats. It also offers

native network attack surface protection and rogue device identification with Singularity Ranger. Storyline Active Response™ (STAR) keeps a constant watch for noteworthy events. Users can secure remote shells for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Kubernetes.

Vigilance, SentinelOne’s 24×7 Managed Detection and Response (MDR) , offloads day-to-day operations to an elite team of analysts and hunters so you can refocus on more strategic projects. Vigilance Respond ensures every threat is reviewed, acted upon, documented, and escalated to you only when needed. Vigilance Respond Pro adds digital forensics and incident response services (DFIR) for extended analysis and response.

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Conclusion

In the end, increased incidents of cyber attacks in the U.S. pose a serious threat to national security and economic stability, serving to erode public confidence in institutions. From healthcare information breaches to attacks on critical infrastructures, it is quite evident that cybersecurity threats are no longer an issue of “if” but rather one of “when.” Understanding the motives behind such attacks, the impacts of sector-specific attacks, and how effective preventive measures apply are all steps in formulating a more comprehensive strategy against cybersecurity threats.

Effective mitigation of cyber risks requires an all-inclusive approach, from proactive defense and risk management strategies like cyber insurance to sophisticated solutions such as the SentinelOne Singularity™ platform. SentinelOne offers solutions such as automated threat detection with AI and automated response capabilities, and unified endpoint management. SentinelOne aims to enable businesses to scale up their operations in security posture and build readiness for shifting cybersecurity challenges.

FAQs

1. List Cyber Attacks in the United States 2024

In 2024, some of the significant cyberattacks recorded in the United States included:

• Telecommunications Breaches: Hackers from China hacked into several US telecommunication firms, intercepting surveillance data destined for law enforcement.
• Financial Sector Attacks: Artificial intelligence uptake rocketed cyberattacks on the financial sector in 2024, including intricate phishing schemes and ransomware.
• Political Influence: Russian hybrid warfare targeted U.S. presidential elections, trying to shake democratic processes by use of disinformation and cyber attacks.

2. What is the #1 Cybersecurity threat for Businesses in 2024?

Ransomware attacks will be the biggest cybersecurity threat facing businesses in 2024. Modern ransomware attacks have become very sophisticated; they are self-learning, with some using artificial intelligence against traditional security measures, and they are causing huge financial and operational disruption.

3. What are the most common types of cyber-attacks?

The most common kinds of cyberattacks include the following:

• Phishing: It is an attempt in which an attacker uses a triggering email or message to manipulate an individual into giving away sensitive information.
• Ransomware: It encrypts sensitive data and forces owners to get back access to it by paying for decryption.
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)– An attack that causes a system to be overwhelmed with traffic, whereby users cannot access services.
• Insider threats – These are malicious actions of people within an organization stemming from jealousy or grudge.
• Malware – It is software designed to infiltrate, damage, or tamper systems without permission.

4. How often do cyber-attacks happen in the U.S.?

Cyberattacks in the U.S. happen almost daily, with companies facing multiple instances. The frequency is somewhat variable, though, with statistics pointing to an increasingly high surge in attacks on critical infrastructure and major corporations.

5. How can businesses protect themselves from cyber-attacks?

Companies can take several steps to improve their cyber posture such as:

• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Increasing their security by providing something beyond a password.
• Regular software upgrades and updates: Keep updating all systems and applications to install the latest security patches.
• Incorporate employee training and awareness: Train employees to identify and respond to phishing attacks and other types of cyber threats.
• Do Security Audits: Conduct constant assessments and improvements on new and existing security systems.
• Incident Response Planning: Developing strategies about how to respond to potential cyber-attacks effectively.