algorithms

U.S. federal prosecutors charged four members of China's People's Liberation Army on February 10, 2020, with orchestrating one of the largest data breaches in history. The defendants allegedly exploited a vulnerability in Equifax's systems to steal sensitive information from approximately 145 million Americans over a two-month period in 2017.

Pascal Payet, a French criminal convicted of murder during a 1997 security van robbery, made international headlines by engineering three separate helicopter escapes from prison between 2001 and 2007. Known by the alias 'Kalashnikov Pat,' Payet's audacious aerial breakouts—each lasting mere minutes—exposed vulnerabilities in European prison security and made him one of the continent's most wanted fugitives.

Michael Jackson was acquitted in 2005 after a high-profile trial in Santa Maria, California, where he faced charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy named Gavin Arvizo. The case centered on allegations that Jackson used his Neverland Ranch to groom children, but the jury found him not guilty on all counts.

Freddie Lee Trone was sentenced to 31 years and 4 months to life in prison on September 23, 2024, after being convicted of orchestrating the murder of Philadelphia rapper PnB Rock. The killing occurred during a robbery at Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles in South Los Angeles on September 12, 2022, when Trone's 17-year-old son fatally shot the artist.

In 2014, entertainment giant Sony was hit by one of the largest cyberattacks ever carried out against a private company, with around 100 terabytes of data stolen. The attack was attributed to North Korea and seen as an attempt to suppress a film's release.

On July 10, 1973, 16-year-old John Paul Getty III was abducted from Rome's Piazza Farnese by members of the 'Ndrangheta, a Calabrian crime syndicate targeting one of the world's wealthiest families. What followed was a five-month ordeal marked by torture, disfigurement, and a negotiated ransom that would shake the Getty family.