As the world approached the year 2000, a number of theories revolving around the turn of the century began surfacing. There was widespread fear and panic that our technological infrastructures would become disrupted by a supposed Y2K bug that would leave the world in an apocalyptic state. Among the conspiracies were the beliefs that trains would derail, planes would crash, computers around the world would fail, launching rockets without warning, ATM’s would malfunction, and the like. Unfortunately, many software programmers made money off of the hype, claiming that their programs would fix the problem. Subsequently, the world welcomed the year 2000 with no mishaps. —(CIA)
Date of event: January 1, 2000
Impact:
Estimated global spending on Y2K prepardness: $300-500 billion
Related Resources:
- Bracing for Impact: The National Security Consequences for the Y2K Problem
- Serial No. 106-198: Y2K, Customs Flows and Global Trade: Are We Prepared to Meet the Challenges of the New Millennium?: Hearing before the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives One Hundred Sixth Congress, First Session, June 29, 1999
HSDL Featured Topics: Cyber Infrastructure Protection | Cyber Policy
HSDL Search: Y2K
Photo: (Credit: Matthew Hurst/Flickr user) Y2K Electronics