Everything is just a click away nowadays. Such technological advancement has indeed helped mankind in more ways than imaginable. However, it has its own cons as well such as viruses. Computers have been vulnerable to malware and virus attacks since its advent. From home desktops to the White House internal server, viruses have not spared anyone. The world has stood witness to the dreadful virus attacks for the last two decades.
Here's a list of 10 most dreaded viruses and the horror they had spread across the world:1. ILOVEYOU:
The sweet-named virus had terrified the world in 2000. It was detected in Phillipines and soon captured 10% of the world's web-connected computers. The damage was worth over five billion dollars.
2. My Doom:
On January 26, 2004, this virus spread all over the Internet via emails with random addresses and subject lines. My Doom or Novarg is said to be the most dangerous virus ever to occur. It infected two million computers and triggered a huge denial of service attack. The damage caused by My Doom was estimated at over 38 billion dollars. Scary!
3. Sobig F:
This virus would fool the user by trying ot convince them that the spam mail they received is from an authentic source. The Sobig F worm replicated over one million copies of itself within 24 hours of its launch in 2003. The virus caused a damage of 3 to 4 billion dollars and infected over 2 million systems across the world.
4. Code Red:
In 2001, Code Red was released on July 13. It took advantage of a flaw in Microsoft Internet Information Server. The virus infected over 400,000 servers including that of the White House. It's estimated total damage was around 2.5 billion dollars.
5. SQL Slammer:
This standalone malicious program, which is also known as Sapphire, was launched in 2003. It infected over 75,000 hosts within 10 minutes. It also affected services of the Bank of America's ATMs, Seattle's 911 emergency response system and the Continental airlines. The cost of damage caused by SQL Slammer was around 1.2 billion dollars.
6.Melissa:
This one is like the grandfather of all viruses. It was launched on March 26, 1999. Melissa is reported to be the first mass-mailing macro virus ever. The estimated damage caused by Melissa accounted up to 600 million dollars. The FBI had launched the largest internet manhunt ever to catch Melissa's creator David L. Smith who was sentenced 20 months in federal custody and had to pay a fine of 5,000 dollars
7. Chernobyl:
Chernobyl or CIH was launched in 1998 Taiwan and it was one of the first viruses to infect the host computer's Flash BIOS chip and make it defunct. The computer industry took a hit worth 250 million dollars.
8. Storm Worm:
The dreaded Trojan program appeared in 2006 by sending users emails with a subject line saying "230 dead as storm batters Europe." According to a survey in January 2007, Storm Worm was responsible for 8% of worldwide computer-related disfunctionality. The virus infected around 10 million computers.
9. Conficker:
Conficker, also known as Downup, Domnadup and Kido, was launched in 2009. It infected around 15 million Windows system around the world. Conficker does not stop at computers. it also spreads via hard disks, smart phones and other removable storage spaces. It can also copy financial data and other important information from any unprotected computer.
10. Nimda:
The virus got its name by spelling Admin backwards. It came into existence on September 18, 2001, and took only 22 minutes to spread through emails, server vulnerabilities, shared folders and file transfer. As it was launched a week after the 9/11 attacks, many believed it to be a cyber terror attack.