Recent Cyberattacks Only the Beginning, as State Hackers Target Data on Americans

Travelers line up at a United Airlines check-in counter at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport Wednesday, July 8, 2015, in Atlanta. All United Continental flights in the U.S. were grounded Wednesday due to computer problems. Just shy of two hours after the problems began, the Federal Aviation Administration lifted the ground stop order. AP Photo/David Goldman

There is a new trend in cyberattacks, and recent breaches that stole tens of millions of records on Americans are just the beginning as state hackers shift their targets.

Only recently, hackers tied to the Chinese military were targeting intellectual property and other data that could be used for monetary gain. Now, they’re going after information with little value outside the spy world.

“We’re seeing a paradigm shift in the type of data [they’re targeting],” said Eric Devansky, director of global security services for TruShield Security, a risk assessment and security firm.

Among the recent breaches was the attack on the Office of Personnel Management, where hackers stole background checks on potentially 21.5 million U.S. federal employees. Before that, hackers stole an estimated 80 million records on Americans from health care company Anthem Inc.

According to Devansky, these attacks are not one-offs. They represent a new trend in cyberattacks, and it’s highly unlikely the hackers will stop there.

The main target, he said, are likely services used frequently by federal employees. The connection between previous attacks is the databases have different information on the same individuals.

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