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The Most Dangerous Computer Viruses That Wreaked Havoc On

The World

The internet is infested with a magnitude of viruses and other malicious software. Most of these
are relatively harmless, or easily defeated by basic firewall and anti-virus software, however,
some programs have caused worldwide disruptions, infecting millions of computers, and
causing billions worth of damage.

Let's discover the most effective viruses that have caused chaos around the globe.

1. I Love You

What did it take to disrupt numerous
computer systems worldwide and cause an
estimated $10 billion in damages? Well, just
a simple love note. The ILOVEYOU virus
was initially spread by email.

People were encouraged to open the
message due to it identifying it as a love
letter from a secret admirer.

Once opened, it then proceeded to hijack the
person’s email, sending copies of itself to all
their contacts. This helped it spread extremely effectively, becoming one of the most prevalent
viruses in history.

The main way it caused damage was by overwriting a variety of different file types, therefore
destroying the data they contained.

If no backups existed then the data was completely lost. This caused major disruption to many
company's computer systems.

2. Melissa

This is another virus that had an extremely effective method of distributing itself. How? By
offering passwords to porn websites that require membership.

Well, this is how it got initially downloaded, in the form of an infected word document. From
there it proceeded to spread via email. It would identify itself as being an important message,
containing a requested document that should not be shared with anyone else.

Once opened, it operated similar to the ILOVEYOU virus by sending itself to the top 50 contacts
on a person's email address book. This caused major disruption to many companies and

81 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – July 2017 Edition
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