“VIRUS” – This single one word menace is enough to give you sleepless nights. Deadly viruses get embedded deep into the roots of the computer. Malicious software, worms, trojan and computer viruses, are on the rise. Hackers, spammers and identity thieves, seek new ways to steal information that can be used to empty bank accounts or spread electronic pandemonium. Well, as if right now, there are millions of viruses and they get more and more every day. Here a look at the top 5 and deadliest viruses of the year.
1. 2007 Storm Worm
Storm Worm is known by a number of names, which is a Trojan that can manipulates and harm Microsoft based computers. This virus is distributed through emails, reading “230 dead as storm batters Europe”. This Trojan horse virus can not just infect your computer but also connect it a bot-net, giving access of your PC to a network of computers that are controlled remotely. Bot net computer can be huge in number, however the exact number was never found.
2. Melissa
Miami has been always famous for its beaches and its beauty. Apart from that Miami is also known for a deadly electronic threat, a macro virus, which was named after a beautiful Miami stripper. In 1999, this macro virus generated a tidal wave affecting gigantic companies like Intel and Microsoft, causing them to close their email servers. The virus appeared as Word document named as List.DOC attachment to email offering access to a number of porn sites.
This virus soon took over a huge number of PC. As soon as the email is opened by the user, the virus sends the infected Word attachment to user’s first 50 contacts in address book. Melissa earned success in causing huge destruction because email was sent using name from recipient’s address book as disguise. Moreover, it contained or referenced a document allegedly requested by the user.
3. The Anna Kournikova Virus
Attributed to Jan de Wit, a Dutch programmer on 11, Feb 2001, this virus was designed to trick recipients with Anna Kournikova picture that comes attached with the message. Clicking the message makes recipient trigger a malicious program. This is yet another virus that exploits Microsoft Outlook mail contacts of the user. Email is labeled with subject: “Hi: Check This!”, with a picture file named “AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs,” which not a JPG attachment, but social engineering and transmission mechanism.
4. MyDoom
It earned fame as one of the fastest spreading viruses, which came into being in 2004 and started appearing in in-boxes. It hit the web breaking the records set by the ILOVEYOU and Sobig worm. The recipient receives an email mentioning delivery failure of the email, which is quite common with internet users. While trying to investigate, user triggers the worm.
Once the file gets activated, the worm would travel to email addresses in user’s address book along with leaving a copy in shared folder. Though, it could spoof email, is able to produce traffic placing huge load on search engines. MyDoom is also known for DDoS attack on the SCO group. The origin of the virus is expected to be Russia, but there is no confirmation.
5. Sasser & Netsky
It tops the chart of being the most popular and creative variant of computer worms. Not only was it famous for effectiveness, but also because it was designed by Sven Jaschan, an 18 year-old German. He later confessed about writing that and other worms.
These are only a few to name. More updates coming ahead. Stay in touch for more updates of Tech-world.
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