![]() ![]() Sobig was not only a self-replicating computer worm, but also a Trojan disguising its true content. The infection affected more than 1 million computers, with $2.6 billion in damages. ![]() The worm then tried to make copies of itself and also defaced local server pages with the infamous “Hacked by Chinese.” Some computers would crash, while others would launch an attack on the White House website. This would force computers to overwrite memory with new instructions from the worm. The Code Red worm exploited a vulnerability in Windows NT and 2000, causing a buffer overflow by sending a string of random data. It is estimated that the Melissa virus caused $80 million worth of damages. The hacker responsible for the attack helped the FBI to catch other virus creators and got away with only 20 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. The virus would send itself to the top 50 people in the user’s address book, which put a lot of pressure on email traffic worldwide. However, when they did, they would receive a nasty surprise. ![]() At the time, a list of that nature was in high demand, leading many people to download and open it. The Melissa virus was disguised as a list of passwords to adult websites and distributed as a Microsoft Word document. The total damage is estimated at between $10 – $15 billion. Having spread among roughly 50 million computers in just 10 days, it caused the CIA, Pentagon, and a host of large corporations to shut down their email systems. ![]() This was potentially catastrophic for large corporations and governments. Once people clicked on the attachment, it immediately sent itself out to everyone in the user’s email list, overwrote files, and made the infected computer completely unbootable.Ĭomputers would also copy users’ passwords and then send them back to the authors of the virus. This virus infected computers through email and appeared as a love confession to the recipient. ![]()
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