Top 7 Famous Computer Viruses :- 1. MYDoom- : Also known as W32.MyDoom@mm , MyDoom is the most destructive computer virus in history. Spotted first in January 2004, the virus rapidly spread through emails, exceeding previous records set by any other worm. Email messages containing the worm were often masked as delivery failures, prompting many to open the message and investigate it. The worm carried two payloads- one was a backdoor entrance from where the intruder can actually control the infected computer, and the other one was a DDos attack. 2.ILOVEYOU- : One of the most widespread and rapidly spreading viruses ever, ILOVEYOU successfully attacked tens of millions of Windows computers. Also known as LoveLetter, this computer worm was spread via an email by a Filipino programmer in 2000. The virus rapidly spread throughout the world, infecting computers of large corporations and governments, including the Pentagon in the United States. 50 million infections were reported in just ten days and most of the damage was caused during the removal of the infection from computers. 3. Melissa- : The virus Melissa pioneered the art of breaking in to your address book and sending itself to all names in your contact list. Named after a stripper in Miami, the Melissa virus was another mass-mailing malware. The virus was distributed by David L. Smith from New Jersey, who sent it through email including a MS Word attachment. The virus infected the networks of Microsoft, Intel and other companies that relied on MS Outlook as their email client. It clogged many of the corporate email servers. 4. Code Red- : Released in mid-2001, Code Red attacked Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Server) Web Server. The Code Red worm did not require you to open an attachment or an email. With the help of an active Internet connection, the virus infected the Windows operating system. Once a computer was compromised by the virus, it would turn your computer into a slave, modifying the handled website, displaying the message “Welcome to worm ! Hacked by Chinese!” In the end, over 200,000 servers were hit by the Code Red virus in 2001. The virus was named Code Red’, as the creator of this worm was drinking Code Red Mountain Dew at that time. 5. Conficker- : What made the Conficker worm so scary and dangerous was that it was a kind of multipurpose botnet creator, combining several techniques to resist detection and removal. Released in 2007, the virus attacked millions of computer all across the world. The more dangerous variant of this virus appeared at the end of 2008 and it added the ability to spread to the local networks. The virus is credited for creating a secure worldwide infrastructure for cyber crime. 6. Sasser- : The Sasser worm was a destructive beast when it hit in 2004. It was created by a 17-year old German kid, who was sentenced to 21 months probation and some community service. The virus did not spread through email, or did not require any human intervention to compromise computers. The virus used RPC Exploit (Remote Procedure Call Exploit) to infect Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines. Sasser targeted universities, hospitals, large corporation, and military organisations, including the British Coast Guard, Agence France-Presse and Delta Airlines. The virus crashed networks from Australia to Hong Kong to the United Kingdom. 7. Storm- : The Storm worm was another worm aimed at a vulnerability in the Microsoft IIS web server. Originally distributed in email messages containing the subject 230 dead as Storm batters Europe’, the Storm Worm is a nasty Trojan horse that would further infect the computer with malware once active. Once the worm was activated, it would force the computer to join a Botnet, which are armies of zombie computers that can be used to send out tons of spam. The virus sucked in ten million computers.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 03:35:08 +0000
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