data processor viruses are almost as old as personal computers themselves , and their evolution was only hastened by the birth of net . And within each codification is a write up about its writer , about the meter it was publish , and about the state of computing when it terrorized our hard drives .
The come screenshots illustrate the history of viruses in a few frail code fragment , so enjoy . But this obligatory warning must be here : Please do not attempt these at home .
Jerusalem, aka Friday 13th, 1987
As one of the first MS - DOS viruses , Jerusalem affected many countries , university , institutions and companies worldwide , infecting chiliad of computers . Jerusalem was merciless : On Friday the 13th , the virus edit all executed computer program filing cabinet on the septic gruelling movement . Supposedly in the name of AL AH :
Morris (a.k.a. Internet Worm), November 1988
This early Internet worm taint over 6,000 data processor in the US , include some of NASA ’s . The code itself was flawed , accidentally sending millions of copy of itself to unlike net computers , paralyzing all web resources , causing almost 100 million dollar sign damage . The fateful word at the end of the code snippet say it all : “ Do n’t know how many … ”
Melissa, 1999
“ Twenty - two point , plus triple - word - score , plus fifty point for using all my letters . secret plan ’s over . I ’m outta here . ” David L. Smith , aka “ Kwyjibo , ” the author of this Microsoft Office macro virus , wasdefinitely a Simpsons sports fan . Melissa was send off through east - ring mail to different users , and had the ability to procreate on Word and Excel files and to mass - mail itself from Outlook , overload internet servers .
I Love You, a.k.a. Lovebug/Loveletter Virus, May 2000
A school day - aged programmer from Manila who presumptively was n’t very engaged in the classroom write this infamous bug . His amorous creation pass around via email ( subject : ILOVEYOU , attachment : LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs , message : “ kindly check out the attached LOVELETTER coming from me ” ) , and deleted all “ jpeg ” and “ jpg ” file in all directories of all disks . Not very romantic .
The Code Red worm, July 2001
This devilish footling creation infect decade of thousands of systems that ran Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000 waiter software package , at the dawning of the 21st C . Code Red defaced the attacked webpages with the textual matter “ Hacked by Chinese ! ” It was able to run entirely on memory , leaving no files behind . The damage it caused was estimated at $ 2 billion .
SQL Slammer, 2003
This virus attack web servers run a vulnerable version of Microsoft SQL Server , then beget random IP addresses in decree to infect other computers . It is unbelievable how small Slammer was — it could fit in the space of five tweets . Here ’s the whole codification in hexa viewer :
Blaster, aka Lovsan, aka MSBlast, 2003
This virus infected century of G of computers through a vulnerability jam in Windows 2000 and Windows XP . It open a dialog window that recite drug user a system shutdown was imminent . The author conceal two substance in the code : “ I just desire to say LOVE YOU SAN ! ” and “ billy gate why do you make this potential ? Stop make money and fix your software ! ! ”
Bagle, 2004
This worm spread itself as an electronic mail attachment attacking all versions of Microsoft Windows . It was plan to open a backdoor where a remote drug user could gain restraint above the infected computer . Remarkably , the source write a tiny poem into the computer code :
Sasser, 2004
Created by 17 year quondam German student , Sven Jaschan , Sasser attacked Windows 2000 and Windows XP machine by overwork a exposure , as seen below :
MyDooom akai W32.MyDoom@mm, Novarg, Mimail.R, Shimgapi, 2004
Mydoom became the fastest - spreading aggregate - email worm ever , at the metre it surfaced . It retard down global net access by a whopping ten percent , and slashed some site admittance by 50 precent . Its code is not so interesting , however , with its help , one could teach the Thomas Kid some canonic cognition — such as the alphabet , name of the weekday , and the calendar month .
Conficker aka Downadup, 2008
Nomen set presage , as the Romans would say : The name of this malware dirt ball total from the run-in “ shape ” and the German “ Ficker ” ( yes , it means “ Fucker ” ) . And that add up it up : Conficker screwed the constellation configurations .
Stuxnet, 2009-2010
Stuxnet ( and its malefic Word , DuQu ) is often referred to as the first “ cyber super artillery . ” The virus was a US and Israeli governmental louse designed to attack Iranian nuclear facility , but unsurprisingly , it accidentally spread beyond its intended targets . Here is a nice snippet from this digital sword :
Flame aka Flamer aka sKyWIper, 2012
This monolithic , extremely sophisticated modular figurer malware infected computers run Windows operating organisation , and attacked systems in center Eastern commonwealth — mostly in Iran , Lebanon , Syria and Sudan . Needless to say , it was part of the well - align , on-going , province - run cyber war , which begin with Stuxnet . Flame was heavy weapons system . It was so big , it got stretch into a system in pieces — first , the auto got hit with a six megabyte component , which contained about half - a - dozen other compressed modules deep down . Flame stop control after its public exposure , because the operators had the ability to send a kill module to it . Here is a tiny piece of Flame :
Top gif: source code of CIH aka Chernobyl, 1998.
This virus infected Windows 95 , 98 , and ME viable files , overwrote the BIOS , and continue nonmigratory in the memory of the machine . It overwrote data on the severe disk of the infected PC , throw it inoperable . ( viaTheDatanet )
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