The most damaging viruses of all time

most damaging viruses

A computer virus could definitely be a nightmare. Some people consider it a mild disadvantage and may need to be cleaned up. In some cases, however, it could be a complete disaster and can make your computer something that no antivirus can protect.

In this blog you will learn about the worst viruses that can cause you a lot of damage. The following malware has caused enough damage to eliminate billions of dollars and to disrupt life infrastructure.

I Love You

This is considered to be one of the most powerful computer viruses ever developed. It’s not very hard to see why. This has caused many problems in the computer system worldwide. In fact, it caused damage estimated at $10 billion. Approximately 10% of the internet connected computer had been infected. The effect was so bad that the mailing system was taken offline by large companies and governments to prevent infections. Onel de Guzman and Reonel Ramones, the two Philippines, have used social technology and urge people to click on an appendix. For this, it was a confession of love. It was actually a TXT file since the actual extension file was hidden by Windows. When it is clicked, it will be sent to each user in the user’s mailing list. It will then overwrite the field. This makes the computer unbootable.

Melissa

The malware derives its name from one of Florida’s most exotic dancers. It was developed in 1999 by David L. Smith. The virus began by infecting the Word document that was posted in the alt.sex usenet group. It was actually a series of passwords for all porn sites. Thus, people became curious and it triggered the macro inside when they downloaded the file and opened it. Then the payload would be unleashed. This virus was sent to the top 50 people in the user’s email book. This results in an increase in e-mail traffic. Therefore, the email service of big companies and governments had a negative effect. Sometimes it corrupted, as Simpson’s reference was inserted in it.

Code Red

This virus first came into existence in 2001. The eye Digital Safety staff had found it, and it was named Code Red since the pair that developed it had drunk Mountain Dew’s Code Red. They targeted Microsoft IIS web server computers and exploited the problem of buffer overflow within the system. The malware is hardly traceable on the hard drive, because the memory has a size of 3,569 bytes. When the system is infected, 100 copies are developed on their own due to a bug in the programming, it doubles. It will therefore eat more resources than you know. Then a service attack will be launched on many IP addresses. The White House was one of the most famous. It also gives the server backdoor access. It leaves a Chinese-hacked message behind. You can check the antivirus check and the most recent update to see if Code Red can be processed. The malware caused damage of $2 billion.

Sasser

Founded in 2004, it’s a Windows worm and was developed by computer science student Sven Jaschan. It is also known to have Netsky’s worm developed. The payload itself could be very annoying. The computer slowed down and crashed. It was therefore difficult to reset without restarting it. The effects were quite perturbing as millions of computers were affected and key infrastructure. The malware was taken advantage of the buffer overflow in the LSASS or Local Safety Authority Subsystem Service. It controls the local account security policy that led to a computer crash. In addition, it used the resources of the system to spread over the Internet to the other machines. Thus, others were automatically infected. It caused millions of infections which caused problems in key infrastructure like new agencies, airlines, hospitals, public transport, etc.

Conficker

It’s also known as downloading or downloading. It’s a worm created in 2008 with an unknown Windows authority. Their names are derived from a configuration, an english word and a German pejorative. The malware can infect a system using faults in the operating system for botnet creation. It has infected over 9 million systems worldwide. The virus affected people and businesses. It is one of the largest worm infections ever to be experienced until now. It works by damaging the vulnerability of the network service. Once your system is infected, it locks your account policies, blocks access to Windows updates and also shuts down some services. Then the malware progresses to install software that converts the system to a slave botnet.

Zeus

It’s a Trojan horse developed for computer infection. It could perform various criminal tasks in this way. One of the most common tasks is to grab man in the browser and log him. Most of the computers were infected with phishing scams or even drive downloads. In 2009, it was identified for the first time. The malware has affected countless FTP accounts and also big multinational corporations ‘ computers. These viruses were spreading very rapidly and had affected many people. It caused a great deal of damage. Therefore, care should be taken and it should not spread and then affect your system. Bear in mind that you can spread messages, e-mail messages, or even corrupted internet links. Computers are great, but they do just what they need to do. Therefore, if viruses do the wrong thing, it can cause sufficient damage.

Mark Funk
Mark Funk is an experienced information security specialist who works with enterprises to mature and improve their enterprise security programs. Previously, he worked as a security news reporter.