10 of the biggest cybersecurity stories of 2024

It was a busy year for cybersecurity news, with stories ranging from a global IT outage to a scathing government report against a tech giant.

Whereas most years include only one or two giant stories in the world of security — 2021 with the Colonial Pipeline hack for example — 2024 included several moments that reached outside the tech news bubble and into the wider world at large. CrowdStrike’s faulty Falcon channel file update, for example, caused a global IT outage this summer that affected millions of Windows machines and disrupted a number of critical organizations, including airlines. And the effects of the ransomware attack against healthcare technology provider Change Healthcare are still felt to this day.

Cybersecurity news headlines in 2024 also included China hacking multiple major telecom companies, the largest ransom payment ever recorded, the hack of a major U.S. presidential campaign and more. These are ten of the most significant cybersecurity stories of 2024 (ordered chronologically).

1. LockBit taken down

The LockBit gang has for years been one of the larger and most active ransomware-as-a-service groups, after compromising giant organizations including Boeing. But the cybercrime outfit was severely disrupted in an international law enforcement operation…