Worst Years for Cybercrime Events
Cybercrime has been getting more common and more severe over the past years. As of today, it could happen at any time without notice.
Cybercrime in this context includes any harmful activity through the use of computers that is considered against the law. Examples such as malware attacks, computer viruses or worms, data breaches, hacking, and phishing are the epitome of common cybercrimes.
Here are some of the worst events related to cybercriminal activity that have occurred throughout the years.
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2000
The year 2000 (MM) was a century leap year that began on a Saturday in the Gregorian calendar. It marked the 2000th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations. It was the final year of the 2nd millennium and the 20th century, as well as the first year of the 2000s decade.
The year 2000 is when the infamous computer worm "ILOVEYOU" originated in the Philippines. It took over millions of computers and caused enormous damage through social engineering as it spread across the world. The worm was among the costliest to eliminate.
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2017
2017 (MMXVII) was a common year that began on a Sunday according to the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2017th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations. The year was also the 17th of the 21st century, the 17th of the 3rd millennium, and the eighth year of the 2010s decade.
2017 was a devastating year mainly known for the infamous ransomware WannaCry and NotPetya, along with a lesser-known ransomware named Bad Rabbit, which disrupted hospitals and other various services containing any devices.
Honorable mentions include severe data breach events such as the Equifax breach, where hackers exposed the personal and financial information of millions of users. 2017 was also the year the tool EternalBlue was leaked by a hacker group and was eventually abused to spread ransomware attacks.
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2004
2004 was a leap year that began on a Thursday in the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2004th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations. Major events in 2004 included the Athens Summer Olympics and the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in December.
2004 is the birth year of one of the most contagious and damaging computer viruses, comparable to the ILOVEYOU virus, named MyDoom. It was capable of sending huge amounts of emails and copies of itself as a method of spreading the virus.
The main purpose of the virus was to attack certain websites, primarily Microsoft and SCO, by launching numerous denial-of-service attacks and spam. As a result, the total cost of damage reached almost 40 billion dollars ($38.5 billion to be exact).
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2013
2013 (MMXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2013th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 13th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 4th year of the 2010s decade.... read more
2013 is the year the Yahoo breach took place, exposing the personal information of billions of individuals.
Honorable mentions include the introduction of the infamous and destructive CryptLocker trojan attack, the Tumblr data breach incident revealing over 65 million passwords, the Target data breach stealing millions of personal information, and the mass hacking incident of Adobe, exposing the personal information of millions of individuals. 2013 is also known for the growing trend of ransomware attacks.
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2008
2008 was a leap year that began on a Tuesday in the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2008th year of the Common Era and the Anno Domini designations. It was also the 8th year of the 3rd millennium, the 21st century, and the 9th year of the 2000s decade.
2008 saw the creation and detection of one of the most complex and difficult worms named the Conficker virus. Conficker reached its prime in 2009, infecting and locking out millions of computers worldwide. It was capable of creating botnets by detecting and using OS flaws and is considered one of the most destructive worms, costing billions to compensate for the damage caused.
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2018
2018 (MMXVIII) was a common year that began on a Monday in the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2018th year of the Common Era, the 9th year of the 2010s decade, the 18th year of the 21st century, and the 18th year of the 3rd millennium. Notable global events included the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang... read more
2018 was the year of the Marriott hotel data breach, which resulted in the theft of the personal information of over 500 million individuals.
Honorable mentions include the well-known Quora data breach, exposing the personal information of roughly 100 million individuals. Ransomware was still an increasing trend during this period.
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1999
1999 is the birth year of one of the most destructive computer (macro) viruses named Melissa. It was known for sending enormous amounts of email once activated, flooding and damaging email services. This cost almost a hundred million in damages.
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2020
2020 (MMXX) was a leap year that began on Wednesday in the Gregorian calendar. It marked the 20th year of the third millennium, the 20th year of the 21st century, and the first year of the 2020s.
The year was globally defined by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic caused widespread disruptions... read more
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2009
The year 2009 was a common year that started on a Thursday in the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2009th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations. This year also marked the final year of the 2000s decade.
2009 is primarily known for one of the most destructive yet stealthy trojan horses under the name of Zeus. Detected back in 2007, it was used in its prime in 2009. Zeus was capable of creating botnets, spying, keylogging, and stealing various financial information, leading to money laundering.
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2019
2019 (MMXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2019th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 19th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 10th and last year of the 2010s decade.... read more
In 2019, data breaches were more severe than in most previous years. Numerous major data breaches worth mentioning include those at Facebook, First American Corporation, Canva, Capital One, and Truecaller. Hackers exposed a minimum of 100 million to almost a billion records for each mentioned company. Combined, over 2 billion records and pieces of personal information were exposed so far this year.
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2025
2025 (MMXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2025th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 25th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 6th year of the 2020s decade.... read more
This is because cybercrimes have been increasing every year due to internet usage.
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2001
2001 (MMI) was a common year that began on a Monday in the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2001st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations. It marked the first year of the third millennium, the 21st century, and the second year of the 2000s decade.
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2016
2016 was the year home to two major data breaches. The Friend Finder Network breach impacted over 400 million accounts, revealing personal information mostly consisting of usernames and passwords. The MySpace breach exposed over 400 million passwords of roughly 360 million MySpace accounts (note: some MySpace accounts consisted of a second or multiple passwords).
Honorable mentions include the introduction of the Locky ransomware, which infected millions of PCs and was considered one of the worst ransomware.
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2007
2007 (MMVII) was a common year that started on a Monday in the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2007th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations. It was also the 7th year of the 3rd millennium, the 21st century, and the 8th year of the 2000s decade.