Top Ten Computer Viruses (to look out for)

1. Top Ten Computer Viruses (to look out for) There are a lot of computer viruses out there, and you’ll find out on what websites to click on.

2. Computer Virus #10: Creeper • First developed in 1971 by Bob Thomas, Creeper might well be the first computer virus. • Once infected, the computer would display the message, "I'm the creeper, catch me if you can!" • designed not to damage but to demonstrate a mobile application. It is generally accepted to be the first computer virus. • able to replicate from one computer to another over a network

3. Computer Virus #9: Elk Cloner • Written in 1982 by a high school student, Rich Screnta, Elk Cloner attacked Apple II computers by a floppy disk. • Elk Cloner spread by infecting the Apple DOS 3.3 operating system using a technique now known as a "boot sector" virus. It was attached to a game, the game was then set to play. The 50th time the game was started, the virus was released, but instead of playing the game, it would change to a blank screen that displayed a poem about the virus named Elk Cloner. • Elk Cloner: The program with a personality • It will get on all your disks • It will infiltrate your chips • Yes, it's Cloner! • It will stick to you like glue • It will modify RAM too

4. Computer Virus #8 - The Morris Worm • one of the first computer worms distributed • Robert Morris wrote the Morris Worm in 1988 while still a graduate student at Cornell. • cost of the damage at $100,000–10,000,000. • not written to cause damage, but to gauge the size of the Internet

5. Computer Virus #7 - ILOVEYOU • referred to as Love Letter, was a computer worm that attacked tens of millions of Windows personal computers on and after 5 May 2000 local time in the Philippines when it started spreading as an email message with the subject line "ILOVEYOU" caused "massive estimated financial damage” • a love letter from a contact in a user's email address book, and prompted the user to open an attachment containing the virus • on March 4th, 2000, the virus infected over 50 million computers in only nine days,

6. Computer Virus #6 – Code Red • Named after the Mountain Dew drink favored by the first researchers to analyze the program • infecting as many as 360,000 computers in a single day. • The worm attacked Microsoft IS servers, and caused massive denial of service problems as it ate up computing resources • observed on the Internet on July 13, 2001. • program could steal what was on your computer or even use your computer to do bad things.

7. Computer Virus #5 - Nimda • Nimda was a rare combination of a worm, a virus and a Trojan horse • a Windows virus that had a lot of different methods of infection • Nimda's various distribution tactics allowed it to become the world's most widespread virus less than an hour after it was released into the wild. • What's more, in Microsoft Windows the Nimda virus can spread over shared network folders, infecting executable files found there. • the virus infects executable files found on the contaminated machine, meaning that it can also spread by file transfers.

8. Computer Virus #4 - Slammer • extremely fast-spreading computer worm that infected the majority of infectable hosts within minutes.” • Slammer first hit the Internet at 5:30 AM, GMT on January 25, 2003. Ten minutes later, 75,000 computers were infected with the worm. • The genius of the worm’s design related to its size, as, at only a few hundred bytes long • The worm inflicted its biggest damage early on when it disabled hundreds of Bank of America cash machines on Saturday, shut down 900 systems of the United States Department of Defense and reportedly disabled the Web site of American Express and other companies.

9. Computer Virus #3 - Blaster • The Blaster Worm was a computer worm that spread on computers running the Microsoft operating systems Windows XP and Windows 2000, during August 2003.[1] • The Blaster was not a particularly dangerous worm, due to a programming error, but it received a lot of media attention nonetheless. • contained a specific attack on Bill Gates that read "billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!!" • 18-year-old named Jeffery Lee Parson was arrested and eventually sentenced to spend a year and a half in prison for writing an updated version of the worm. • The worm was first noticed and started spreading on August 11, 2003.

10. Computer Virus #2 - Welchia • Welchia remains one of the most unusual worms in history, as it was designed to help instead of hurt • Welchia infected computers, cleared out the Blaster infestation • begins spreading to other systems by selecting IP addresses. • infected the network of the State Department, causing the department to shut down the network f or nine hours • Contains the following text strings: I love my wife & baby :-) Welcome Chian Notice: 2004 will remove myself:-) sorry zhongli

11. AND FINALLY…………..THE WORST COMPUTER VIRUS OF ALL TIME……………………………………………..

12. Storm Worm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (worstest) • On April 1, 2008, a new storm worm was released onto the net, with April Fools-themed subject titles • originally posing as breaking news of bad weather hitting Europe • infected computers around the world in 2007. • Millions of infected PCs were taken over by hackers and used to spread spam and steal identities. • affects computers using Microsoft operating systems • The Storm network also employs another evasion technique known as "fast-flux," which involves assigning multiple (often thousands) of Internet addresses to the same Web site domain name.