🧨 Top 10 Hacks on Government Institutions (Including the Pentagon): Who Did It, How, and Why It Mattered
“No system is safe. Only under-maintained, overconfident, and outdated ones are easy.” — some guy who didn’t patch his server
You’d think state institutions—NSA, the Pentagon, foreign ministries—would have Fort Knox-tier cybersecurity. Wrong. What follows are 10 real attacks on high-level state organizations that got wrecked, rooted, or ransacked.
- 🛸 Gary McKinnon (2001–2002) – Hacked the Pentagon, NASA, U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force
Who: Scottish sysadmin and UFO enthusiast
How: Exploited weak/no passwords on Windows systems via RDP and remote desktop tools.
Why: Looking for UFOs and free energy tech allegedly hidden by the U.S.
What happened: Accessed 97 computers, deleted critical files, crashed military networks—including the U.S. Army’s 2,000-computer network for a day.
Impact: Cost claimed at ~$700,000 in damages. The U.S. tried (and failed) to extradite him from the UK.
This hack is still considered one of the largest unauthorized intrusions into U.S. military systems.
- 🐍 SolarWinds Hack (2020)
Who: Allegedly Russian state-sponsored group (APT29 aka “Cozy Bear”)
How: Supply chain attack—backdoored SolarWinds Orion software, used by gov agencies.
Targets: Departments of Homeland Security, State, Energy, Treasury, and more.
What happened: Attackers inserted a trojan into legit software updates, gaining long-term stealth access.
Impact: 18,000 orgs affected. This was espionage on a god-tier level.
- 💣 NSA Tools Leaked – Shadow Brokers (2016)
Who: A mysterious hacker group, possibly Russian-affiliated
What: Stole and leaked NSA’s top-secret hacking tools like EternalBlue (used later in WannaCry)
How: Unknown. Possibly from an NSA employee’s home server or internal breach.
Impact: NSA’s dirty laundry—zero-days, implants, exploits—exposed to the world. Even ransomware groups reused them.
- 💥 WannaCry Attack (2017)
Who: North Korean state-sponsored group (Lazarus)
What: Used EternalBlue (an NSA exploit) to spread ransomware across the globe
Targeted: UK’s NHS, FedEx, Telefonica, and various governments indirectly
Why here: Even though it wasn’t designed to hit governments directly, it paralyzed state-run hospitals and services.
Impact: $4+ billion in damages. Unpatched Win7/Server 2008 machines = wrecked.
- 🧠 Kevin Mitnick (1990s)
Who: Legendary American hacker
Target: U.S. Department of Defense, NSA contractors
How: Social engineering + exploiting VMS and Unix systems
What happened: Bypassed multiple layers of security and stayed ahead of the FBI for years
Impact: Mitnick became the most wanted hacker in America.
He later became a cybersecurity consultant.
From felon to Fortune 500 speaker.
- 🔓 Chinese APT Hack of U.S. OPM (2015)
Who: Chinese hackers, possibly APT10 or 3
Target: Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
Data stolen: Info on 22 million people, including background checks, fingerprints, and SSNs
How: Phishing and malware on contractor systems, lateral movement inside gov networks
Impact: Basically, the Chinese state got the full résumé + private life details of U.S. federal workers—including agents.
- 🧬 Stuxnet (2007–2010)
Who: U.S. + Israeli intelligence (unconfirmed officially, but basically proven)
Target: Iranian nuclear facilities (Natanz)
How: USB drive with worm that spread to air-gapped Siemens systems
What happened: Subtly sabotaged centrifuges by changing rotor speeds
Impact: First real cyber weapon. Delayed Iran’s nuclear program by years. Set the standard for cyberwarfare.
- 🛑 Anonymous Hacks FBI Affiliates (2011–2012)
Who: Anonymous & LulzSec
Target: FBI contractors like HB Gary Federal, Stratfor
How: SQL injection, password reuse, bad OPSEC
What: Emails, employee data, intelligence memos leaked
Impact: Exposed shady intelligence operations and how poor infosec practices plague even private-sector defense orgs.
- 🧩 Edward Snowden (2013)
Who: NSA contractor
How: Internal leak, not external hack—but deserves a spot
What: Leaked documents proving global surveillance (PRISM, XKeyscore, etc.)
Impact: Changed how the world views surveillance, sparked massive public debate, and inspired more whistleblowers and privacy tech (like Signal, mass VPN use, and TOR awareness).
- 🧑💻 Julian Assange / WikiLeaks – Vault 7 (2017)
Who: WikiLeaks via a disgruntled CIA insider (Joshua Schulte)
Target: CIA cyber weapons
What leaked: Vault 7 – Exploits for iPhones, Android, Smart TVs, Windows
How: Poor internal compartmentalization and access control in CIA systems
Impact: Showed the CIA’s offensive hacking capabilities and weaknesses in consumer tech.
Many tools went into public use. Serious black eye for U.S. intelligence.
👀 So What’s the Pattern?
Every time you see:
Unpatched systems
Arrogance in “nobody would dare”
Poor internal security hygiene
Insider access gone unchecked
Contractors without full clearance
You get an institution with a loaded gun pointed at its foot.
🧠 Final Take
State institutions love preaching security, but in practice?
They're slow, bureaucratic, and vulnerable as hell.
Old Windows servers, weak policies, and overconfident IT teams = the perfect storm.
If hackers can punch holes through the digital walls of the Pentagon, CIA, and NSA—what does that say about your local government?
💥 Follow me for more brutally honest takes on hacking, cyber warfare, digital sovereignty, and how to think like a hacker (without becoming a felon).
And if you're a dev? Learn from this.
Security isn’t a feature. It’s a f**king necessity.
— Luftie