10 most Destructive viruses History in the world
A computer viruses are a program, script, and macro which planned to cause harm; steal private information, change data, send e-mail and display messages. More importantly, when the viruses executed then it spreads by
copying itself into or over the following:-
Data files
Programs
Boot sector of a computer’s
Hard drive
Potentially anything else writable.
Virus writers use detail knowledge of
security vulnerabilities to gain access to a host’s computer.
When was term“Virus” first Used
The theory of a computer program capable of reproducing
itself was first mentioned byJohn von Neumann in
his 1949 “Theory of self-reproducing automata” essay.
First
computer virus ever created.
Elk Cloner was the
first computer virus written by Rich Skrenta in 1982. He was a
15-year old high school student at the time. The Elk Cloner virus spread to other
computers by monitoring the floppy drive and copying itself to any
floppy diskette. Once the infected floppy inserted in the computer it infects
the computer and then the infected computer display a short poem on every 50th
boot.
How to
protect your computer from viruses
Anti-virus software is the solution to protect a computer
from viruses. Once installed on a computer an antivirus monitors, detects, and
cleans any computer viruses.
There are many types of computer viruses such as:-
Appending virus
Boot sector virus
Space filler virus
Cavity virus
CMOS virus
Companion virus
Encrypted virus
Exe Virus
Rabbit Virus
MBR virus
Non-resident virus
Overwrite and Stealth virus
History of computer viruses is too long and it is very
difficult to cover it in a single article. in the following, I am giving the
list and short introduction of 10 most destructive viruses in the world ever.
The most 10 destructive virus in the world
1.CIH
CIH virus was created in 1998 in Taiwan. The virus destructs
and corrupts computer data after being activated. The virus infects all
executable files in Windows 95 and 98 systems. Once the virus-activated, it
destroys computer hard disk data and also overwrites system’s BIOS chip which
also required BIOS chip reprogramming otherwise system cannot boot at all.
2. Melissa
This computer virus was created by David L in 1999 and was
named after a Florida dancer. It started as an infected Word document that
was posted; up on the alt-six USENET group, claiming to be a list of passwords
for pornographic sites. This got people curious and when it downloaded and
opened, it would trigger the macro inside and unleash its payload. The virus will mail itself to the top 50 people
in the user’s email address book and this caused an increase
in email traffic and disrupting the email services of governments and
corporations. It also sometimes corrupted documents by
inserting a Simpsons reference into them.
3. ILOVEYOU
Another very deadly computer virus was the “I love you”
virus. Everybody loves to hear these words, right? This virus was developed in
2000 to attack the basis of the loveliest human emotion. A user gets an email
with the subject line “I Love You”. And to express more love, there is an
attachment that states “love letter for you”. If you happen to click the
attachment, which everybody else would for sure, the virus would activate
itself. And the same email would be sent to the top 50 people in the Windows
address book. Rightly said by someone, love is surely dangerous.
4.Beast Trojan
Horse
Beast Trojan Horse was developed in 2002. The virus infects a
user computer system completely after activating. Until user clicks and executes
the virus, it remains safe and does no harm. But, after the execution, it
replicates itself and several copies will be stored in multiple directories of
your computer system. Having the reverse connection capability, a remote user
can access your file manager, registry editor, Webcam, power options files,
remote IP scanner, including many other options.
5. Sobig.F
Sobig.F was created in 2003, this virus attacked Internet
gateways and email servers and causing big damage in billions of dollars.
It slows down all the global Internet access. It used to collect different
email addresses from the infected computer systems. Then the virus would send
its multiple copies to all these addresses.
6. SQL Slammer
SQL Slammer was founded in 2003, it crashes servers and slows
down all Internet traffic. Now, the SQL base has nothing to do with it. SQL
Slammer infected the servers on UDP and packed them in a single packet. As a
result, routers could not work. It is a fast-spreading antivirus and infects
most of its 75,000 victims within ten minutes. SQL Slammer significantly slowed
down general Internet traffic. It is generally targeted the servers
generating random IP addresses and discharging the worm to those IP addresses.
7. My Doom
Mydoom was a worm for Windows appeared in 2004,
created a huge wave of shocking email messages. This is the fastest spreading
email worms since ILOVEYOU. The virus would come as an email attachment into
your mail inbox. You would receive a misleading message like “mail transaction
failed”. When a user would click on the mail, the virus would get activated.
The worm would get transferred to the address book of the mail.
The author of this virus is unknown and I think the creator
paid to create it since it has the text message, “Andy; I’m just doing my job,
nothing personal, sorry,”. It was named by McAfee employee Craig Schmugar; one
of the people who had discovered it. ‘mydom’ was a line of text in the
program’s code (my domain) and sensing this was going to be big, added ‘doom’
into it.
8. Code Red
code red was discovered by two eEye Digital Security
employees in 2001. The pairs were drinking Code Red Mountain Dew at
the time of discovery so its name become code red. The worm targeted Microsoft IIS web server installed computer
and exploiting a buffer overflow problem in the system. It leaves a very little
trace on the hard disk as it is able to run entirely on memory, with a size of
3,569 bytes. Once infected, it will do to make a hundred copies of itself but
due to a bug in the programming; it will duplicate even more and ends up eating
a lot of the resources of the system.
9. Sasser
This was a dangerous virus created by a 17-year-old German
boy Sven Jaschan a comp in 2004, and the virus proved to be very destructive.
It hit several big names like British Coast Guard, Delta Airlines, and Agence
France- Presse. It slows down and crashes the computer while making it hard to
reset without cutting the power; the effects were incredibly disruptive; with millions of
computers being infected, and important, critical infrastructure affected.
The worm took advantage of a buffer overflow Vulnerability in
Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS); which controls the security
policy of local accounts causing crashes to the computer. It will also use the
system resources to propagate itself to other machines through the Internet and
infect others automatically.
10. Bandook Rat
Bandook Rat is similar to Beast Trojan Horse, is more
destructive than the latter. Developed in 2005. It is a backdoor Trojan horse
entering Windows operating systems mainly, such as Windows NT, XP, 2000, 2003,
Vista, and 7. It is still being worked upon to make it one of the mostdangerous computer viruses of all time.
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