Dyn

Attacks known as distributed denial of service, or DDoS, aim to prevent consumers from accessing a certain online service. It may be as simple as adding memes to a popular website, or it could be as serious as denying security personnel access to their nation's military facilities. Fortunately, no attempt at that magnitude has been made yet, although DDoS attacks are undoubtedly becoming more severe and sophisticated with time.

An important Internet domain name service called Dyn was the victim of the greatest DDoS attack ever. Similar to a phonebook for the Internet, it works behind the scenes to link IP addresses to domain names and other locators. Media outlets like The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, as well as prominent online businesses like Netflix, Twitter, Spotify, Reddit, CNN, and PayPal, all experienced website crashes as a result of the attack.

Three hackers, Josiah White, Dalton Norman, and Paras Jha, were ultimately found to be responsible for the attack; they all entered guilty pleas in December 2017.

• Year: 2016
  
• Damage: Over 100,000 devices were used in the Dyn attack