MafiaBoy

A significant number of important digital outlets were subjected to a widespread denial-of-service attack in February 2000. It targeted early Internet businesses including Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, CNN, and Dell, among others. As a result of the successful attack, which showed that they weren't as secure as they claimed to be, it is obvious that it produced quite a panic among investors all across Wall Street.

Actually, that was fairly spectacular, especially considering that a 15-year-old did it. When several university networks were first taken over, it was Quebec, Canada resident and high school student Michael Calce. He then launched the primary attacks using their combined computing power, quickly taking down all of the targeted websites.

It was a high-profile incident because it forced President Clinton to call a meeting on high-level security and garnered extensive media attention for the fast growing problem of cyberattacks. However, the attack itself was only meant to be a flex against rival hacker groups and had no real malicious intent. In the end, Michael was given a term of eight months in a juvenile correctional center.

• Year: 2000
  
• Damage: a meeting on high-level security