You have two choices before turning in for the night: sleep soundly knowing your organization has taken proactive steps to mitigate cyber threats—or sleep just as soundly, blissfully unaware of lurking vulnerabilities that only make themselves known after the damage is done.
Complacency is comfortable, but it’s costly.
Before we switch off the lights, let’s illuminate some of the most impactful cyber security breaches from recent years. These are not just headlines from distant boardrooms. They are close, consequential, and loaded with lessons every organization—regardless of size—should heed.
10 cyber incidents that should keep every CxO up at night
These cases aren’t sensationalist tales. They’re the reason CISOs and IT managers increasingly prioritize incident response planning, cyber hygiene, and third-party risk management.
British Airways (2018)
A classic example of delayed disclosure and costly consequences. Hackers accessed names, addresses, email addresses, and payment card data of about 500,000 customers. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office fined BA £20 million, and total damages reached approximately £800 million.
PRO TIP
Test your disclosure protocols quarterly. A fast and compliant response depends not just on detection, but on rehearsed internal coordination with legal, comms, and executive teams.
Facebook and Google
Social engineering strikes again—this time with forged invoices. Between 2013–2015, a Lithuanian hacker exploited vulnerabilities in vendor validation processes to siphon off more than $100 million via fake invoices.
PRO TIP
Institute multi-person approval workflows for invoice processing. Even tech giants fell for fake billing. Verifying high-value payments with dual checks is a simple, effective guardrail.
BBC (2023)
BBC became collateral damage in the widespread compromise of MOVEit, a file transfer tool used by payroll vendors. Personal data of more than 100,000 employees was exposed. This wasn’t a breach of BBC’s systems directly, but of its trusted third-party supplier.
PRO TIP
Request and review your vendors’ incident response policies annually. If they handle sensitive data, you need clear expectations for breach notifications, response times, and roles.
CityBee (Lithuania)
When backup storage goes unchecked, so do your defenses. CityBee left backup files of customer data accessible online. The breach exposed sensitive personal data, resulting in a €110,000 fine and reputational fallout.
BankingLab (2022)
This fintech software provider suffered a breach due to outdated security software protecting core infrastructure. The attackers exploited these weaknesses, exfiltrating confidential client data. Regulatory investigation may still be pending, which means further penalties are possible.
Linas Agro (2023)
This Lithuanian agribusiness was hit by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack that disrupted critical operations. While no data was stolen, the downtime and public visibility of the attack underlined the rising use of DDoS as a form of economic disruption.
Revolut (2022)
Proof that even tech-forward fintechs aren’t immune to social engineering. A Revolut employee was manipulated into granting system access. The result: the personal data of over 50,000 users was compromised.
PRO TIP
Add social engineering simulations to employee training. Phishing isn’t just about fake emails anymore—it’s phone calls, LinkedIn DMs, and urgent Slack messages. Prepare your team accordingly.
Lithuanian military officer (2023)
Even multi-factor authentication (MFA) isn’t bulletproof—especially when SMS is the second factor. A known officer had their Facebook account hijacked despite using MFA. This reinforces the growing recommendation to use MFA apps (like Authy or Microsoft Authenticator) instead of SMS, which can be vulnerable to SIM swapping or interception.
Uber (2022)
Hackers used a clever MFA fatigue attack on an Uber contractor—sending repeated push notifications until he eventually accepted. This led to a network-wide compromise and highlighted the risks in assuming SaaS applications are secure “by default.”
PRO TIP
Enable number-matching and geolocation alerts in your MFA tools. These reduce the chance that users will blindly approve MFA requests in a fatigue attack scenario.
Music streaming sabotage (2023)
Two incidents in Lithuania—one at a regional radio station, another in a shopping center—demonstrated how threat actors can exploit third-party streaming services to inject disinformation. It’s a stark reminder that SaaS apps, while robust, are only as secure as their configuration and access controls.
Why leaders can’t afford to ignore this
If these examples feel uncomfortably close to home, that’s because they are. Too often, leaders delay action until after an incident has struck. By then, costs are measured not just in euros or dollars—but in lost trust, reputational damage, and legal exposure.
Cyber threats don’t discriminate by company size, sector, or geography. They exploit human error, neglected infrastructure, and vendor dependencies. Waiting for the next quarterly board meeting or compliance review to act is no longer good enough.
Rethinking what “secure” really means
At CyberUpgrade, we believe cybersecurity should be proactive, affordable, and embedded into every company’s culture. Our mission is to eliminate the “it won’t happen to us” mindset by:
- Equipping teams with real-world examples and training
- Providing tailored, budget-conscious security solutions
- Helping organizations assess and strengthen their supply chain risk
Because cybersecurity is not a project. It’s a posture.
From wake-up call to action plan: How CyberUpgrade helps you sleep better
Reading these incidents is sobering—but what if acting on them didn’t require more headcount, expensive consultants, or months of planning? With CyberUpgrade, turning these lessons into practical defenses is fast, automated, and built into your team’s daily workflows. Our platform helps you enforce access controls, run phishing simulations, and audit third-party risks without disrupting your business operations.
Instead of scrambling after the fact, you can rely on real-time evidence gathering, employee training through Slack or Teams, and built-in risk assessments that highlight vulnerabilities before they become headlines. Even better, our fractional CISO service gives you ongoing strategic guidance tailored to your regulatory landscape—whether that’s DORA, NIS2, or ISO 27001.
So while cyber threats evolve, your protection doesn’t stand still. CyberUpgrade helps you shift from reactive firefighting to proactive resilience—giving your leadership team the confidence to sleep soundly, knowing your security posture is measured, managed, and always audit-ready.
Will your company sleep soundly tonight?
These breaches—from careless backups to deceptive emails—aren’t just history. They’re warnings. The organizations that fare best aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones that prioritize action before crisis.
So, before you shut down your laptop for the night, ask yourself: Are we secure, or are we lucky?
