Solar Sunrise

What looked to be a sophisticated, large-scale attack against the Department of Defense in February 1998 was operationally known as Solar Sunrise. More than 20 systems were taken over by the attackers, who then utilized them to access private data belonging to organizations including NASA, the US Air Force, MIT, and others. The attacks appeared to be coming from all around the world, and they also obtained hundreds of staff IDs and passwords.

As US forces were poised to bomb Iraq later that year, it was initially believed that the perpetrators were members of the Iraqi intelligence community. It was even referred to as "the most orchestrated and systematic attack the Pentagon has seen to date" by the Deputy Secretary of Defense.

The attackers were revealed to be two teens from California and one from Israel after a thorough investigation involving several intelligence agencies, Internet service providers, and senior military leaders from around the world.

• Year: 1998
  
• Damage: large-scale attack against the Department of Defense