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BlazinStreetz.com | Tech News |
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The worst computer viruses of all time |
By: BlazinStreetz.com |
Posted: 04/02/2008 9:45 A |
If you haven't experienced a computer virus yet, just wait -- you probably will. Fortunately, you missed the real heyday of computer viruses when anti-virus software wasn't very widely used, and virus attacks caused millions of dollars in damages overnight. |
Today's viruses can still be nightmarish, but for the average user,
cleanup is considerably easier than it was just a few years ago, when
the only solution in many cases was reformatting your hard drive and
starting from scratch (and even that didn't do the trick sometimes).
So join me on a trip down memory lane as we revisit some of the worst
viruses of all time and count our blessings that our computers are
still up and running despite it all. (Though, please note, "worst" is a
matter of considerable debate in the security industry, as the number
of infected machines and amount of financial loss is always estimated.
If you think another virus was worse than these, please post it in the
comments to remind us!)
The worst viruses of all time
Brain, 1986
It all started here: Brain was the first "real" virus ever discovered,
back in 1986. Brain didn't really hurt your PC, but it launched the
malware industry with a bang and gave bad ideas to over 100,000 virus
creators for the next 2 decades.
Michelangelo, 1991
The worst MS-DOS virus ever, Michelangelo attacked the boot sector of
your hard drive and any floppy drive inserted into the computer, which
caused the virus to spread rapidly. After spreading quietly for months,
the virus "activated" on March 6, and promptly started destroying data
on tens of thousands of computers.
Melissa, 1999
Technically a worm, Melissa (named after a stripper) collapsed entire
email systems by causing computers to send mountains of messages to
each other. The author of the virus was eventually caught and sentenced
to 20 months in prison.
ILOVEYOU, 2000
This was notable for being one of the first viruses to trick users into
opening a file, which in this case claimed to be a love letter sent to
the recipient. In reality, the file was a VBS script that sent
mountains of junk mail and deleted thousands of files. The results were
terribly devastating- one estimate holds that 10 percent of all
computers were affected, to a cost of $5.5 billion. It remains perhaps
the worst worm of all time.
Code Red, 2001
An early "blended threat" attack, Code Red targeted Web servers instead
of user machines, defacing websites and later launching
denial-of-service attacks on a host of IP addresses, including those of
the White House.
Nimda, 2001
Built on Code Red's attack system of finding multiple avenues into
machines (email, websites, network connections, and others), Nimda
infected both Web servers and user machines. It found paths into
computers so effectively that, 22 minutes after it was released, it
became the Internet's most widespread virus at the time.
Klez, 2001
An email virus, Klez pioneered spoofing the "From" field in email
messages it sent, making it impossible to tell if Bill Gates did or did
not really send you that information about getting free money.
Slammer, 2003
Another fast spreader, this worm infected about 75,000 systems in just
10 minutes, slowing the Internet to a crawl (much like Code Red) and
shutting down thousands of websites.
MyDoom, 2004
Notable as the fastest-spreading email virus of all time, MyDoom
infected computers so they would, in turn, send even more junk mail. In
a strange twist, MyDoom was also used to attack the website of SCO
Group, a very unpopular company that was suing other companies over its
code being used in Linux distributions.
Storm, 2007
The worst recent virus, Storm spread via email spam with a fake
attachment and ultimately infected up to 10 million computers, causing
them to join its zombie botnet.
Thanks to Symantec for helping to compile this list. |
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