GETTY • AFP Hayastan Shakarian caused an internet blackout in three countries with her garden spade

Hayastan Shakarian sliced through an underground cable while digging to scavenge copper. As she sliced into the fibre optic cable – the elderly woman single-handedly triggered a internet blackout for millions. "I have no idea what the internet is," she would later claim.

Ms Shakarian was digging in the village of Ksani – some 37 miles outside the capital city of Tbilisi – when she left neighbouring Armenia without Internet access for twelve hours.

I have no idea what the internet is Hayastan Shakarian, the Spade Hacker

The pensioner also caused major internet outages across Georgia and Azerbaijan. In total, more than three-and-a-half million people were left sat in front of blank screens and error codes after the then-75-year-old sank her spade into the backbone cable. Television reports showed footage of reporters working for a news agency in the capital Yerevan slumped in front of blank screens.

GETTY • AFP The elderly Georgian woman claimed she had "no idea what the internet is"

GETTY • AFP At the site where 75-year-old Hayastan Shakarian severed the internet connection to Armenia

Hayastan Shakarian was quickly dubbed the Spade Hacker for the devastating damage she caused. "The woman was hunting for some copper lines that she was hoping she could to sell," a police spokesperson said at the time. The cable damaged by the elderly Georgian runs through a slew of eastern European countries – connecting these countries to western Europe.