We already brought you part one of our list of the top 10 craziest computer hacks of all time, and now we’re back with part two! Check out five more ridiculous stories of computer hacks that are so wild you might not even believe they’re true. You might be surprised by what you see!
Number Five: Microsoft’s Melissa Virus. In 1999, Microsoft discovered it had been hacked by something it called the “Melissa” virus. The virus affected anyone who had Outlook 1998 or 2000, and it was delivered in the form of an email. The email contained a Word document that, when opened, activated the virus and sent the same email to the first 50 people in the recipient’s address book.
Number Four: Stuxnet. In 2010, Stuxnet was discovered. Stuxnet was a computer worm originally designed to target Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities. The worm was able to hack into nuclear power plants and change the rotations of various centrifuges within the plant. Other countries around the world were affected as well.
Number Three: T.J. Maxx and Marshalls. In 2007, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls were affected by a hack which compromised an unknown amount of information. At least 45 million people‘s credit card information was stolen, and it took the companies three years before they even detected what was going on. To this day, the extent of the information breach is still “unknown.”
Number Two: Sony Pictures. Sony Pictures was hacked in 2014 surrounding the release of the controversial parody film The Interview. Though the identities of the hackers were unknown, their intentions appeared to be to make Sony Pictures employees’ lives very bad. Cyber terrorists who may have been linked to the hacking incident demanded that Sony not release The Interview or else there would be shootings in theaters. Sony initially complied but eventually defied the cyber terrorists.
Number One: Conficker. Conficker remains the largest computer worm in history and, to date, has not been killed. Tens of millions of Windows PCs in more than 200 countries have been hacked by this worm, which originally targeted people who use social networking sites. Multiple email clients are vulnerable, and once the worm is in, it has access to all sorts of user information. We hope you enjoyed our list of the top 10 craziest computer hacks of all time!