Viruses have been around for decades and are created sometimes as a joke, but other times to create destruction. In the 1980s, computer viruses were transmitted by humans; the virus was stored on disk and distributed by humans. When the Internet became popular, the spread of computer viruses became a real problem.
The top 10 computer viruses
The Melissa virus was created in 1999 and was based on a macro in Microsoft Word. It spread through a file attached to an email message. When the attachment was clicked, the virus replicated and ranked in the top 50 people in your contact book. This meant that the virus spread very quickly. It caused problems in the United States for the government and the private sector. The creator of the virus was sentenced to 20 months in jail and a fine of $ 5,000.
The ILOVEYOU virus was released in 2000 and was a worm written in Visual Basic Scripting that replicated automatically. The virus traveled via email and instant messenger clients with the subject saying it was from a secret admirer. The virus was able to copy itself and hide in different folders on the computer’s hard drive. New files were created for the registry keys that the virus was able to steal passwords and email them to the hackers email address. Apparently, the ILOVEYOU virus caused $ 10 billion in damage.
The Klez virus introduced in 2001 spread again through e-mail messages. This one was particularly clever and used spoofing, which made the virus email look like it came from a person in your address book. It was a nasty virus that could render your machine unusable. The virus was many things, and it could be a worm, a Trojan horse, it could disable virus detection software and masquerade as virus removal software. This virus shows how important it is to invest in Internet security antivirus software.
The Code Red and Code Red II worms appeared in 2001. If your machines were infected with the Code Red II worm, a remote user could control your computer through a back door to access all your information and commit cyber crimes. Windows NT machines were affected by Code Red worms that caused them to crash. Microsoft finally released a security patch that prevented your computer from getting infected; however, if you already had a virus, you needed to purchase antivirus software to remove it.
The Nimda virus was another from 2001 that spread extremely fast. It was designed to attack Internet servers to stop Internet traffic. This virus also attacked computers and spread via email. It also created back doors that allowed the virus creators to take control of the machine.
The SQL Slammer virus appeared in 2003 and was designed to attack web servers. This virus brought down the Bank of America ATM service and Continental Airlines had to cancel flights due to electronic ticketing problems. This virus spread so fast in fifteen minutes that it had infected almost half of the servers that act as the mainstays of the Internet.
The MyDoom virus was another virus that created back doors on victims’ machines. It caused problems for search engines by submitting search requests and using email addresses found in results. Search engines received millions of searches from corrupt machines that slowed it down and caused search engines to crash.
The Sasser virus attacked vulnerable computer systems and made it difficult to shut down your computer without cutting off the power. The virus spread across the web and downloaded onto your machine.
The Netsky virus spread via email and created a denial of service (DoS) attack that caused systems to crash. The Sasser and Netsky viruses were created by the same person, a 17-year-old German named Sven Jaschan, who fortunately did not serve a prison sentence due to his age.
The storm worm, a 2006 Trojan horse, got this name because the email messages carrying the virus were subject to “230 dead as storm hits Europe.” The virus allowed hackers to seize computers and send spam. The virus spread by downloading fake news and video links with the subject line changing to reflect current current events. This virus is said to have been detected in more than 200 million emails.
