Six Dangerous Computer Virus In History

ILOVEYOU

In the year 2000 on May 5th, millions of people around the world received the same exact email from someone they knew.

"Kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me," read the email, which had "ILOVEYOU" as a subject.

The missive included an attachment that looked like a text file named "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU."

The ILOVEYOU virus, distributed via email and file sharing, affected 50 Million systems and caused $15B in damages total, with $5.5B in damages being caused in the first week.

This virus came to be known as the ILOVEYOU worm, or LOVEBUG. At the time, it was the biggest computer virus the world had ever seen, and the first successful use of social engineering.

MyDoom

It arrives as an e-mail attachment in a text file which sends itself out to other e-mail addresses if opened.

MyDoom, potentially commissioned by Russian e-mail spammers, was one of the fastest spreading worms. It's projected that this virus caused $38B in damages.

SoBig

SoBig was a worm and trojan that circulated through emails as viral spam. This piece of malware could copy files, email itself to others, and could damage computer software/hardware. This piece of malware caused $37B in damages and affected hundreds of thousands of PCs.

WannaCry

WannaCry was an extremely virulent ransomware crypto worm that also set up backdoors on systems. The attack affected 200,000+ computers across 150 countries, and caused the NHS $100M in damages with further totals accumulating close to $4B.

DarkTequila

A sophisticated and evasive piece of malware that targeted users mainly in Latin America, DarkTequila stole bank credentials and corporate data even while offline. DarkTequila cost millions in damages across many users.

BlackEnergy

BlackEnergy 2 uses sophisticated rootkit/process-injection techniques, robust encryption, and a modular architecture known as a "dropper". BlackEnergy was used in a cyber attack that prompted a large-scale blackout in Ukraine in December 2015.

One anonymous buyer brought a laptop filled with these computer viruses for 1.6 million US dollars. A 10.2-inch Samsung NC10-14GB were chosen for the magnitude of economic damage they’ve caused. And It’s perfectly safe — as long as you don’t connect to your Wi-Fi or plug in a USB.