10 Stupidest Hacks of All Time

Every security breach highlights something the victim didn’t do or a mistake that wound up being very costly, such as reusing passwords or not running firewall software. Some of the attacks can be quite sophisticated, using zero-day vulnerabilities. Or sometimes they are or just plain devious, relying on phishing scams. Many people tend to think of hackers as geniuses as they are often one step ahead of the good guys. In general, hackers are very calculating and successful, so there arent a lot of dumb hacks out there, according to Marc Maiffret, CTO of eEYE Digital Security, told eWEEK. Maiffret admitted there were some “dummies in cyberspace,” but felt they were fewer than those “robbing the local liquor store.” However, according to Alan Wlasuk, CEO of 403 Web Security, some of them are just average folks capable of making some very dumb mistakes. eWEEK chatted with several security researchers and compiled the list of some of the dumbest cyber-attackers, either in the attack itself