What are the most common computer viruses and how do they work?
There are many types of computer viruses, but some are more common than others. Here are four of the most common viruses and how they work:
1. The Love Bug Virus
Also known as the ILOVEYOU virus, this was a particularly destructive virus that began circulating in 2000. It affected computers running Microsoft Windows and caused widespread panic. The virus would arrive in an email with the subject line “ILOVEYOU” and the body of the message would say “kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me.” If the recipient opened the attachment, the virus would launch and begin replicating itself, sending copies of the email to everyone in the victim’s address book. The Love Bug virus caused an estimated $5.5 billion in damage.
2. The Melissa Virus
Named after a stripper in Florida, the Melissa virus was one of the first viruses to spread via email. It arrived in an email with the subject line “Important Message From [username]” and the body of the message would contain a password to view the attachment. If the attachment was opened, the virus would launch and replicate itself, emailing itself to the first 50 people in the victim’s address book. The Melissa virus caused an estimated $80 million in damage.
3. TheAnna Kournikova Virus
This virus became widespread in 2001 and got its name from the Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova. The email would have the subject line “Here is that file you asked for…” and would contain an attachment that claimed to be a picture of Kournikova. If opened, the virus would launch and send itself to everyone in the victim’s address book. It would also overwrite certain files on the victim’s computer, making it difficult to recover any data.
4. The Blaster Worm
The Blaster Worm emerged in 2003 and was designed to exploit a flaw in Microsoft Windows. The virus would arrive in an email with the subject line “I just seen (sic) this picture of you” and would contain an attachment that, when opened, would launch the virus. The virus would then replicate itself and spread to other computers. In addition, the virus would instruct infected computers to launch a denial of service attack against a specific website on a specific day. This attack would overload the website’s servers and cause it to crash. The Blaster Worm caused an estimated $10 million in damage.
What are the top 10 most deadly computer viruses of all time?
The top 10 deadliest computer viruses of all time are:
1. ILOVEYOU
2. Melissa
3. Code Red
4. Nimda
5. SQL Slammer
6. Blaster
7. SoBig
8. MyDoom
9. Zeus
10. Conficker
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