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 include any harmful activity through the use of computers considered against the law. Examples such as malware attacks, computer viruses/worms, data breaching, hacking, phishing are the epitome of common cybercrime. Here are some worst events in relation to cyber-criminal activity events happened throughout the years.
The year 2000 (MM) was a century leap year that started on a Saturday according to the Gregorian calendar. It marked the 2000th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations. It was the last year of the 2nd millennium and the 20th century, and the 1st year of the 2000s decade. The year 2000 is where the infamous computer worm "ILOVEYOU" took place in the Philippines, taking over millions of computers and causing enormous damage by the use of social engineering as it spreads across the world. The worm was among one of the costliest to eliminate.
2017 (MMXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2017th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 17th year of the 3rd millennium, the 17th year of the 21st century, and the 8th year of the 2010s decade. 2017 was a devastating year mainly known for the infamous ransomware WannaCry, NotPetya, along with a lesser known ransomware named Bad Rabbit, which disrupted especially hospitals, and other various services containing any devices. Honorable mentions includes the severe data breach event such as the Equifax breach which hackers exposed 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.
2004 was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2004th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations The birth year to one of the most contagious yet damaging spreading computer virus, comparable to the ILOVEYOU virus; named MyDoom, capable of sending huge amounts of emails and sending copies of itself as a method of spreading the virus. The main purpose of the virus was to attack certain websites primarily Microsoft and the SCO by launching numerous denial of service attacks and spam; As a result, the total cost of damage caused reached almost up to almost 40 billion dollars ($38.5 billion to be exact).
2013 (MMXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, 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. 2013 is the year the Yahoo breach took place, exposing billions of individual personal information. Honorable mentions include the introduction of the infamous destructive CryptLocker trojan attack; the Tumblr data breach incident revealing over 65 million passwords; Target data breach revealing, stealing millions of personal info; and the mass hacking incident of Adobe, exposing millions of individual personal info. 2013 is also known where ransomware attacks are known to be a growing trend.
2008 was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2008th year based on the Common Era/Anno Domini designations. It is the 8th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 9th year of the 2000s decade. The year where the creation and detection of one of the most complex and most difficult worm named the Conficker virus. Conficker took its prime in 2009 infecting, locking out millions of computers worldwide; capable of creating botnets by detecting & using OS flaws. Considered one of the most destructive worm, costing a payment of billions in order to compensate the damage caused.
2018 (MMXVIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2018th year of the Common Era (CE), the 9th year of the 2010s decade, the 18th year of the 21st century, and the 18th year of the 3rd millennium. The year where the Marriott hotel data breach took place, stealing over 500 million personal information of each individual. Honorable mentions include the well known Quora data breach, exposing roughly 100 million of individual personal information. Ransomware is still an increasing trend in this period.
The birth year of one of the destructive computer (macro) virus named Melissa; known to send enormous amounts of email once activated, flooding and damaging email services as a result; this cost almost a hundred million in damages.
2020 (MMXX) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 20th year of the third millennium, the 20th year of the 21st century, and the 1st year of the 2020s... read more This year, Wattpad had a terrible data breach that's still going on. And earlier than that Quotev had a even worse data breach called Laylee. I don't even need to tell you
2009 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2009th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations. It was the 10th and final year of the 2000s decade. 2009 is primarily known for of one of the most destructive yet stealthy trojan horses under the name of Zeus; detected back in 2007 & used in its prime in 2009. Capable of creating botnets, spying, keylogging, and stealing various financial information leading to money laundering.
2019 (MMXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, 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. In 2019, data breaches today tend to be much more fearful than most previous years. Numerous major data breaches worth mentioning include the Facebook; First American Corporation; Canva; Capital One; Truecaller, which hackers exposed up to hundred million a minimum to almost a billion records for each mentioned company; all combined, over 2 billion records and personal information were exposed so far this year.
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, exposing over 400+ million passwords of over roughly 360 million of each MySpace accounts (note: some MySpace accounts had consisted of a second or multiple passwords). Honorable mentions include the introduction of the Locky ransomware; infecting millions of PCs, considered one of the worst ransomware.
2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2007th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 7th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 8th year of the 2000s decade.
2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2001st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 1st year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 2nd year of the 2000s decade.