- [ The Most Dangerous PC Viruses of All Time ] -

cultura.bitcoin (61)in #news • 8 years ago

In the last two decades we have seen Malware that caused billions of dollars in losses, from political hacking messages to the cyberweapons like Stuxnet and the "digital kidnapping" of files with ransomware, I think we have seen everything in terms of computer viruses. Security solutions evolved, but the same happened on the other side, and today we can find very sophisticated copies, with a truly impressive distribution capacity. It is also necessary to recognize that hyperconnectivity and mobile devices make things much more complicated for the user these days, however, it is not impossible to maintain a decent defense.
Today we are going to remember some of the worst viruses that went through PCs!

Melissa

Melisa is macro virus that combined natural vulnerabilities in email clients such as Outlook, a lack of security measures in the interpretation of macros within Word, and a good dose of social engineering. By clicking on the attached file, the computer was automatically infected, and the virus was sent to the first fifty addresses in the address book. The hacker responsable was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison, three years of supervision after his release, one hundred hours of community service, and a fine of five thousand dollars.

ILOVEYOU

Also known as Love Letter, this Visual Basic script started on May 4, 2000. ILOVEYOU used a distribution mechanism similar to Melissa, but instead of taking advantage of the weakness of the macros , their creators disguised a .VBS file as a text document. ILOVEYOU was particularly destructive due to its function of renaming personal and system files, modifying the extension. It is estimated to have infected more than 50 million systems in ten days, and caused loses between five and nine billion dollars.

Conficker

No one denies that it showed a certain preference for government buildings, hospitals, and even military bases but non-specialized media ended up exaggerating its impact, .It caused losses about more than nine billion dollars. And it refuses to die until this day. In January of this year, 600 thousand terminals were still infected.

Remeber, keep your system "safe". Malware only needs to get lucky once.