Microsoft confirms Chinese hackers breached its servers

On July 22, Microsoft confirm that Chinese hackers breached its servers, targeting its SharePoint document software and the data of businesses using the platform. The company said the cyberattack was carried out by state-linked “threat actors” who gained unauthorized access to sensitive information stored on the popular collaboration tool.

The breach affected nearly 100 organizations worldwide—mostly in the United States and Germany—including government agencies. While the specific victims have not been named, national authorities have been notified.

Cybercrime has become a massive global industry and, despite ongoing efforts by governments and corporations to prevent these attacks, history shows that stopping them is no easy task. Explore the following gallery to learn about some of the most notorious cyberattacks in history.

What's a cyber attack?

They are attacks made from one or more computers, toward another computer, group of computers, or network.

How hackers attack computers

Hackers use a variety of methods to conduct cyber attacks. They can operate alone or in groups, launching coordinated attacks.

Email is still a vulnerability

According to a report from JumpCloud, 94% of malware (viruses, trojans, worms, etc.) is delivered by email.

Morris Worm

The estimated damage was US$10 to US$100 million.

MafiaBoy

The attacked websites included Amazon, CNN, eBay, and Yahoo!. The attacks resulted in an estimated damage of $US1.7 billion.

Google China

The Chinese government was suspected of being behind the attack. In 2010, Google relocated its servers to Hong Kong.

Jonathan James

This allowed him to steal NASA software worth US$1.7 million. The systems were impacted for three weeks, costing NASA US$41,000. Jonathan James committed suicide in 2008.

Phone lines blocked to win car

He successfully blocked any other callers and eventually won the car. He was later sentenced to five years in prison.

Scientology

This was just one of many attacks by the group known as 'Anonymous.'

Solar Sunrise

The US government first suspected that Iraqi operatives were behind the cyber attack.

Melissa virus

The virus has reportedly caused about US$1.1 billion in damages worldwide.

2002 internet attack

This was one of the the most complex cyber attacks in history, and could have had disastrous consequences if it had lasted for more than one hour.

Credit card galore

Gonzalez then reportedly spent US$75,000 on a birthday party. This is still the biggest card fraud in history.

Paypal

As a result, several individual users boycotted Paypal and hackers launched an attack on the company. The estimated damage was approximately US$4.5 million.

Stuxnet

Iran blamed the United States and Israel for the attacks.

US Treasury

A Chinese state sponsored hacker infiltrated the US Treasury Department's systems in early December 2024, gaining access to employee workstations and certain unclassified documents, according to American officials.

The Treasury Department described the breach as a "major incident" and is currently working with the FBI, amongst other agencies, to investigate the hack's impact.