MALWARE: The Love Letter

So far there has been conversation about different subjects. But I think we can all agree this time on the simple fact that malware is a big pain in the gluteus maximus.

In the early 1990s the average person was just getting acquainted with computers when the spread of a virus by floppy disk became known. It was very malicious...very sneaky...you couldn't see the virus and it would eat up files O.o....

In the early 2000s came the network worms (i.e. slapper, slammer and sasser etc..) and the most widely spread e-mail virus in history, the Love Letter or ILOVEYOU e-mail.

This computer worm reached millions of homes. When just one person opened the attached file called LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU, it sent a copy of its self to everyone in Windows Address Book. So you can imagine how quickly this virus spread.

The way that this worked was similar to the Christmas Tree EXEC which was the first computer worm to paralyze computers internationally in 1987.

I have a similar experience with e-mail viruses. Except I thought it was from my mom and in the subject line, if i remember correctly, it said hello....or it was blank. But, in the end everyone on my e-mail list got an advertisement of porn and Viagra (not the best e-mail for my grandma to receive).

 

Question for the exam:

In the 1990s, how was the first virus spread?

1) By flying pigs

2) By mice

3) By floppy worms

4) By floppy disk