It would take only 22 minutes after it was introduced for it to already becoming the number one virust from the perspective of the attacks that were reported. Internet servers were the primary target of this worm, as its purpose was actually to bring all traffic on the Internet to a crawl. It moved via email and several other methods. People were not even away that their machines were infected. This virus would come out in and was designed to impact Web servers and it spread across the global Internet system.
At the time, countless networks were simply not prepared for the attack that this particular virus would unlease. Even the entire ATM system at Bank of America would crash, and Seattle would see its system come to a crashing halt. Continental Airlines at the time would have to cancel several flights because of issues with their electronic ticketing system.
There were two triggers for this virus, both occurring in February of The second part of the virus would actually impact Internet search engines.
At the time, it was estimated that one out every 12 messages being sent by email were infected with the virus. This is the third worst computer virus of all time, and it was really a doozy. This one was actually created by a German who was only 17 years old at the time. He actually created two different programs and released them over the Internet. This virus did not need email in order to spread.
Once it was on a computer, it would impact other systems, making them vulnerable. It would get in through the Internet. This is the only virus on the list that specifically targets Mac computers. It was created in It made use of the iChat instant messenger program to infect the computers of its victims.
It would then search through the iChat contacts to send a message to everyone on their list. This is the worst virus and it was created in It got its name because the subject of the email referenced a storm that was battering Europe. It would basically turn the computer into a zombie or bot. The infected computer could end up being accessed by another person who was behind the attack itself. These are the 10 deadliest computer viruses of all time.
Make sure that your system is up to date with its anti-virus software in order to combat possible future attacks. Dana has extensive professional writing experience including technical and report writing, informational articles, persuasive articles, contrast and comparison, grant applications, and advertisement.
In other words, if a user with limited privileges activated the worm on a computer , the attacker would also have limited access to the computer's functions. On the other hand, if the victim was the administrator for the machine, the attacker would have full control.
The spread of the Nimda virus caused some network systems to crash as more of the system's resources became fodder for the worm. In effect, the Nimda worm became a distributed denial of service DDoS attack.
Not all computer viruses focus on computers. Some target other electronic devices. Here's just a small sample of some highly portable viruses:. Next, we'll take a look at a virus that affected major networks, including airline computers and bank ATMs. Many computer networks were unprepared for the attack, and as a result the virus brought down several important systems. The Bank of America's ATM service crashed, the city of Seattle suffered outages in service and Continental Airlines had to cancel several flights due to electronic ticketing and check-in errors.
The progress of Slammer's attack is well documented. Only a few minutes after infecting its first Internet server, the Slammer virus was doubling its number of victims every few seconds. Fifteen minutes after its first attack, the Slammer virus infected nearly half of the servers that act as the pillars of the Internet [source: Boutin ].
The Slammer virus taught a valuable lesson: It's not enough to make sure you have the latest patches and antivirus software. Hackers will always look for a way to exploit any weakness, particularly if the vulnerability isn't widely known.
While it's still important to try and head off viruses before they hit you, it's also important to have a worst-case-scenario plan to fall back on should disaster strike. Some hackers program viruses to sit dormant on a victim's computer only to unleash an attack on a specific date. Here's a quick sample of some famous viruses that had time triggers:. Computer viruses can make a victim feel helpless, vulnerable and despondent. Next, we'll look at a virus with a name that evokes all three of those feelings.
The MyDoom or Novarg virus is another worm that can create a backdoor in the victim computer's operating system. The original MyDoom virus -- there have been several variants -- had two triggers. One trigger caused the virus to begin a denial of service DoS attack starting Feb.
The second trigger commanded the virus to stop distributing itself on Feb. Even after the virus stopped spreading, the backdoors created during the initial infections remained active [source: Symantec ]. Later that year, a second outbreak of the MyDoom virus gave several search engine companies grief. Like other viruses, MyDoom searched victim computers for e-mail addresses as part of its replication process. But it would also send a search request to a search engine and use e-mail addresses found in the search results.
Eventually, search engines like Google began to receive millions of search requests from corrupted computers. These attacks slowed down search engine services and even caused some to crash [source: Sullivan ]. MyDoom spread through e-mail and peer-to-peer networks.
According to the security firm MessageLabs, one in every 12 e-mail messages carried the virus at one time [source: BBC ]. Like the Klez virus, MyDoom could spoof e-mails so that it became very difficult to track the source of the infection. Not all viruses cause severe damage to computers or destroy networks.
Some just cause computers to act in odd ways. An early virus called Ping-Pong created a bouncing ball graphic, but didn't seriously damage the infected computer. There are several joke programs that might make a computer owner think his or her computer is infected, but they're really harmless applications that don't self-replicate.
When in doubt, it's best to let an antivirus program remove the application. Next, we'll take a look at a pair of viruses created by the same hacker: the Sasser and Netsky viruses. Sometimes computer virus programmers escape detection.
But once in a while, authorities find a way to track a virus back to its origin. Such was the case with the Sasser and Netsky viruses. A year-old German named Sven Jaschan created the two programs and unleashed them onto the Internet. While the two worms behaved in different ways, similarities in the code led security experts to believe they both were the work of the same person. The Sasser worm attacked computers through a Microsoft Windows vulnerability. Unlike other worms, it didn't spread through e-mail.
Instead, once the virus infected a computer, it looked for other vulnerable systems. It contacted those systems and instructed them to download the virus. The virus would scan random IP addresses to find potential victims. The virus also altered the victim's operating system in a way that made it difficult to shut down the computer without cutting off power to the system. The Netsky virus moves through e-mails and Windows networks.
It spoofs e-mail addresses and propagates through a 22,byte file attachment [source: CERT ]. As it spreads, it can cause a denial of service DoS attack as systems collapse while trying to handle all the Internet traffic. At one time, security experts at Sophos believed Netsky and its variants accounted for 25 percent of all computer viruses on the Internet [source: Wagner ].
Sven Jaschan spent no time in jail; he received a sentence of one year and nine months of probation. Because he was under 18 at the time of his arrest, he avoided being tried as an adult in German courts. So far, most of the viruses we've looked at target PCs running Windows. But Macintosh computers aren't immune to computer virus attacks. In the next section, we'll take a look at the first virus to commit a Mac attack. Just as you'd find good and bad witches in Oz, you can find good and bad hackers in our world.
One common term for a hacker who sets out to create computer viruses or compromise system security is a black hat. Some hackers attend conventions like the Black Hat conference or Defcon to discuss the impact of black hats and how they use vulnerabilities in computer security systems to commit crimes. Hodgman comes down with a virus and points out that there are more than , viruses that can strike a computer.
Long says that those viruses target PCs , not Mac computers. For the most part, that's true. Mac computers are partially protected from virus attacks because of a concept called security through obscurity. Apple has a reputation for keeping its operating system OS and hardware a closed system -- Apple produces both the hardware and the software.
This keeps the OS obscure. Traditionally, Macs have been a distant second to PCs in the home computer market. A hacker who creates a virus for the Mac won't hit as many victims as he or she would with a virus for PCs. But that hasn't stopped at least one Mac hacker. In , the Leap-A virus, also known as Oompa-A, debuted. It uses the iChat instant messaging program to propagate across vulnerable Mac computers. After the virus infects a Mac, it searches through the iChat contacts and sends a message to each person on the list.
The message contains a corrupted file that appears to be an innocent JPEG image. The Leap-A virus doesn't cause much harm to computers, but it does show that even a Mac computer can fall prey to malicious software. As Mac computers become more popular, we'll probably see more hackers create customized viruses that could damage files on the computer or snarl network traffic. Hodgman's character may yet have his revenge.
While computer viruses can pose a serious threat to computer systems and Internet traffic, sometimes the media overstates the impact of a particular virus. For example, the Michelangelo virus gained a great deal of media attention, but the actual damage caused by the virus was pretty small. The song warns listeners of a computer virus called Stinky Cheese that not only wipes out your computer's hard drive, but also forces you to listen to Jethro Tull songs and legally change your name to Reggie.
The latest virus on our list is the dreaded Storm Worm. But unless you know what you're up against, it can be hard to take network security seriously. It would send itself to users' mailing lists and overwrite files, making computers unbootable. Once infected, the virus would replicate itself, taking up computer resources. The virus would then open up the machine to a remote access.
This virus started in as an infected word document. This was posted online, claiming to be a list of passwords to adult websites.
Once opened, it would mail itself to the user's email contacts. The increased email traffic caused disruption to governments and corporations alike. In , Storm Trojan infected thousands of computers. Users activated it by opening emails with titles such as " dead as storm batters Europe".
Then, a program called wincom32 would install itself. This passed information to other infected computers. These computers would then spread the virus. Sasser affected millions of Windows XP and computers. Sasser slowed machines down and caused crashes. It also made it hard to power down. Damages were estimated in the billions of dollars as well as forcing airlines and governments to shut down.
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