history of computer virus
rahul malge
the damages caused by some of them pushed cyber-experts to opening a new
chapter on computer viruses. Some viruses led to serious damages and
affected a large number of companies, universities and even governments.
Here are some of the most dangerous computer viruses in history:
Jerusalem - 1987
This is one of the first MS-DOS viruses in history
that caused enormous destructions, affecting many countries,
universities and companies worldwide. On Friday 13, 1988 the computer
virus managed to infect a number of institutions in Europe, America and
the Middle East. The name was given to the virus after one of the first
places that got "acquainted" with it - the Jerusalem University.
Along with a number of other computer viruses, including "Cascade",
"Stoned" and "Vienna" the Jerusalem virus managed to infect thousands
of computers and still remain unnoticed. Back then the anti-virus
programs were not as advanced as they are today and a lot of users had
little knowledge of the existence of computer viruses.
Morris (a.k.a. Internet Worm) - November 1988
This computer virus infected over 6,000 computer systems in the United
States, including the famous NASA research Institute,
which for some time remained completely paralyzed. Due to erratic code,
the worm managed to send millions of copies of itself to different
network computers, being able to entirely paralyze all network
resources. The damages caused by the Morris computer virus were
estimated at $96 millions.
To be able to spread, the computer virus used errors in such
operating systems as Unix for VAX and Sun Microsystems. The virus could
also pick user passwords.
Solar Sunrise - 1998
A decade later the situation didn't change, in fact it even got
worse. Using a computer virus, hackers, in 1998, penetrated and took
control of over 500 computer systems that belonged to the army,
government and private sector of the United States. The whole situation
was dubbed Solar Sunrise after the popular
vulnerabilities in computers that run on the operating system called Sun
Solaris. Initially it was believed that the attacks were planed by the
operatives in Iraq. It was later revealed that the incidents represented
the work of two American teenagers from California. After the attacks,
the Defense Department took drastic actions to prevent future incidents
of this kind.
Melissa - 1999
For the first time computers got acknowledged with Melissa computer
virus on March 26, 1999, when the virus shut down the Internet mail
system,
which got blocked with e-mails infected by the worm. It is worth
mentioning that at first Melissa was not meant to cause any harm, but
after overloading the servers, it led to serious problems. For the first
time it spread in the Usenet discussion group alt.sex. Melissa was
hidden within a file called "List.DiC",
which featured passwords that served as keys to unlocking 80
pornographic websites. The original form of the virus was sent through
e-mail to different users.
Melissa computer virus was developed by David L. Smith
in Aberdeen Township, New Jersey. Its name comes from a lap dancer that
the programmer got acknowledged with while in Florida. After being
caught, the creator of the virus was sentenced to 20 months in federal
prison and ordered to pay a fine of $5,000. The arrest was made by a
team of representatives from FBI, New Jersey State Police and Monmouth
Internet.
Melissa had the ability to multiply on Microsoft Word 97 and Word
2000, as well as on Microsoft Excel 97, 2000 and 2003. In addition, the
virus had the ability to mass-mail itself from Microsoft Outlook 97 and
Outlook 98.
I Love You - May 2000
Using a similar method as the Melissa, the computer virus dubbed "I Love You"
managed to infect millions of computers around the world overnight.
Just like Melissa this computer virus sent passwords and usernames,
which were stored on the attacked computers, back to the developer of
the virus. After authorities traced the virus they found that a young
Filipino student was behind the attack. The young man was released due
to the fact that the Philippines did not have any law
that would prevent hacking and spreading malware. This situation served
as one of the premises for creating the European Union's global
Cybercrime Treaty.
The Code Red worm - July 2001
This 21st century computer virus managed to penetrate tens of
thousands of systems that ran Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000
server software. The damages caused by the Code Red computer virus were
estimated at $2 billion. Core Red was developed to use the power of
all computers it infected against the official website of the White
House
at a predetermined date. In collaboration with different virus hunters
and tech firms, the White House managed to decipher the code of the Code
Red virus and stop traffic as the malware started its attacks.
Nimda - 2001
Shortly after the September 11 tragedy this computer virus infected
hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide. Nimda was considered to be
one of the most complicated viruses, having 5 different methods of
infecting computers systems and being able to duplicate itself.
Downadup - 2009
The latest and most dangerous virus is the "downadup" worm, which was
also called "Conficker". The computer security company F-Secure stated
that the computer virus has infected 3.5 million computers worldwide.
This malicious program was able to spread using a patched Windows
flaw.
Downadup was so "successful" in spreading across the Web, because it
used a flaw that Microsoft patched in October in order to distantly
compromise computers that ran unpatched versions of Microsoft's
operating system. But the greatest power of the worm is believed to be
the ability of computers, infected with the worm, to download
destructive code from a random drop point. F-Secure stated that three of
the most affected countries were China, Brazil and Russia.
Regard
Rahul malge
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Devraj Singh
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