The Internet has been a revolutionary technology that changed the
world and the hackers have been trying to crack the vulnerabilities that
they can use for their own gains. They also pose a threat to the
internet.Here are the top 10 viruses and worms that impacted the world.
1. Melissa
Davil
L Smith in 1999 created a virus called Melissa based on Microsoft Word
Macro.The virus propagated through the email messages with a attachment
called ”Here is that document you asked for, don’t show it to anybody
else.”When the victim clicks the attachment, the virus replicates itself
by sending it to top 50 emails on the contact list.
2. ILOVEYOU
Developed
in Philippines it propagated through Internet Relay Chat and by emails
in a Visual Basic Script attachment by tricking them to believe the
email is from a secret admirer.It hid several copies of the file in
victims computer and replaced several files in the Hard disk of
itself.It downloaded a virus file Win-BugsFix.Exe from the internet and
executed it.The file would then email the passwords to the Hackers email
address.The worm accounted for over 10 billion in damages.
3. Code Red & Code Red II
Found
in 2000, Created a backdoor in the victims computer and used it to
control remote access to carry of various kinds of attacks including
Denial of Service using the victims computer. The virus used
a vulnerability in Windows 2000 and Windows NT , where the buffer
overwrites the adjacent memory if the buffer overflows due to too much
information.
4. The KLEZ
The Klez
debuted in late 2000 , lasted fo several months and spread using spoofed
emails to the contact list in the victims computer.It could either act
as a Trojan Horse,virus or a worm.The virus made the operaating system
inoperable or sometimes could even stop a antivirus program.
5. Nimda
Nimda,
Admin spelled backwards, found in 2001 the virus spread rapidly and
attacked major internet servers and created backdoors in the victims
computer for Denial of Service Attacks.It spread through various methods
including emails and gained similar level of access as the person
logged into the computer, i e as a administrator or limited user.It
bought down many network services by taking up and depleting its
resources.
6. SQL slammer/Sapphire
Found
in January 2003, the Virus bought down several major web services
including Bank Of America ATM services and Continental Airlines and
caused more than 1 billion in losses.It spread rapidly doubling every
few seconds and infecting half of internet backbone servers in fifteen
minutes before the antivirus software’s caught it.
7. MyDoom
Created
in 2004 , created a backdoor in victims computer and spread through
spoofed emails and peer to peer networks. MyDoom had 2 triggers , where
one trigger command was used to command it to Denial of Service attack
and the second trigger was used to command stop distribution of the
virus.
8. Sasser and Netsky
Created
by a 17-year-old German named Sven Jaschan , though both programs
behaved in different ways, the similarity in coding led in finding out
the person. Sasser virus attacked a windows vulnerability and propagated
by attacking the victim computer and scanning potential IP addresses
for other vulnarable computers for downloading the virus. It even made
the victim’s computer difficult in shutting down their computer.
Netsky moves through email’s and windows networks through a attachment
and causes a Denial of service attack in taking down web services.
9. Leap-A
Malicious
program designed specifically for attacking vulnerability in Mac. Found
in 2006, it uses the iChat program to send out messages to all the
contacts in the contact list and propagating further to
other vulnerable Mac computers. The virus sends out a corrupted file
which looks like a jpeg image file attached through the iChat
application.
10. Storm Worm
Storm Worm
is a Trojan horse program.Found in the year 2006 and called with
different names,storm worm is used to carry different payloads of
programs in it.This was also used to create Botnets which is used for
remote control of the victims computer for sending out spam mails.It was
found that more than 200 million emails were infected in carrying the
Storm Worm virus in a span of few days.The Worm was downloaded off the
links disguised of the recent events taking place at the time, like the
Beijing Olympics or Earthquake in China.
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