What is Y2K?
Y2K, also known as the Millenium Bug or the Year 2000 problem, was a global technological scare concerning possible malfunction or shutdown on systems that use abbreviated year coding, from the complete 4 digits to the 2 digit shorthand. The problem lies in the abbreviation’s rollover from -99 to -00 as the millennium or January 1, 2000 comes in. Businesses and individuals scrambled to find a solution, checking and upgrading their systems in the fear that well-used systems will break down as soon as the year count went to 00.

The term Y2K was a combination of Y which stands for ‘year’ and 2K, which is an abbreviation for 2000 (where K means kilo). Governments and corporations undertook measures to avoid and remedy the supposed consequences of the Y2K bug, famous examples of which are the US government’s Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act as well as some insurance companies’ introduction of policies that will cover damages to businesses that will suffer under the Y2K bug.

When the new millennium officially set in, the ‘global technological meltdown’ that people feared would happen did not actually occur. Some attribute this to the vast preparation that were undertaken, while other just saw the Y2K problem as an issue that was blown way out of proportion.