How Y2K Changed the Field of Cybersecurity Technology

When looking at the cyber technology market over the past 15 years, it is evident that the catalyst for cyber evolution was Y2K. Prior to the Y2K frenzy, “cybersecurity” was masked in the systems engineering function, and external threats consisted of hackers looking to leverage free computing capabilities with very little focus on information/data access or network destruction. Malware existed, but it was more of an annoyance than a method of system compromise. Remediation focused primarily on increasing authentication capabilities and included multi-factor authentication, enhanced password policies and encryption as organizations attempted to protect their infrastructure from being oversubscribed. Things changed when the Y2K problem became evident.

According to a Department of Commerce estimate, the nation’s private and public sector organizations spent $100 billion to address the issues with Y2K. Y2K preparations focused on the availability of systems, ensuring mis-coded applications didn’t cause the electricity to fail or bank accounts to disappear. The emergence of new tools and technologies designed specifically for cybersecurity purposes hit the market during this time, providing a feature set needed for a robust security operations program.