Computer viruses are a big nightmare that can disrupt your PC’s performance, they are designed to corrupt your machine.
Here are the most dangerous computer viruses of all time:
Code Red – taking advantage of the Microsoft Internet Information Server’s flaw, Code Red spread on the network servers in 2001, it didn’t need you to open an email attachment or execute a file; it just required an active Internet connection with which it ruined the Web page that you opened by displaying a text Hacked by Chinese! This virus devastated nearly $2.6 billion dollars by hitting almost one million PCs in less than a week’s time, the virus brought down over 400,000 servers that included the White House Web server as well.
ILOVEYOU – virus managed to wreck PCs all across the world. Infecting almost 10% of the world’s PCs connected to the Internet, the virus caused a total damage of around $10 billion. The virus apparently got transmitted via email Love-Letter-For-You.TXT.vbs. The moment someone opened the file, the virus emailed itself to the first 50 contacts available in the PC’s Windows address book.
Melissa – built by David L, Melissa became the breaking news on March 26, 1999, was spread in the form of an email attachment by the name list.doc. FBI arrested David L and slapped him with a fine of $5000 for creating the wildest virus of its time.
My Doom – hit the malware world in 2004. Infecting somewhere around two million PCs. It transmitted itself via email, a receiver would first consider a bounced error message that read Mail Transaction Failed. This mass mailer worm caused a damage of almost $38 billion.
Sasser – Sasser was a Windows worm that was discovered in 2004, it would slow down and crash the PC, making it even hard to reset without cutting the power. Millions of PCs being infected and crucial, significant infrastructure affected. The worm played on a buffer overflow susceptibility in Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) that monitors the safety policy of local accounts causing crashes to the PC, resulting in over a million infections. This included critical infrastructures, such as new agencies, hospitals, airlines, and public transportation.