Top Ten Most-Destructive Computer Viruses

computer viruses have return a protracted means from the first days of non-public computers, once teen hackers competed for bragging rights, making malware designed for mischief or random mayhem. Now, the hackers have gone skilled, and their ambitions have grown; instead of amateurs understanding of their parents' basement, malware creators ar usually a part of associate underworld criminal gang, or operating directly for an overseas government or administrative body. because the stakes have full-grown, thus too has the potential injury and destruction brought on by malware.

1) Stuxnet (2009-2010) The arrival of Stuxnet was sort of a cartoon villain return to life: it had been the primary worm designed specifically to cause injury within the real, as critical virtual, world. whereas previous malware programs could have caused secondary physical issues, Stuxnet was distinctive therein it targeted software system that controls industrial systems. Specifically, Stuxnet was designed to break machinery at Iran’s metal enrichment facility in Natanz. supported the offered info, as well as knowledge from the International energy Agency, specialists believe Stuxnet caused an oversized variety of Iran’s centrifuges—essentially large laundry machines accustomed enrich uranium—to extend of management and self-destroy. although Stuxnet was discovered in 2010, it's believed to possess 1st infected computers in Asian nation in 2009.

2) Conficker Virus (2009)In 2009, a replacement laptop worm crawled its means into legion Windows-based PCs round the world, making a huge botnet army of remotely controlled computers capable of stealing money knowledge and different info. Its quality created it tough to prevent, and also the virus prompted the creation of a coalition of specialists dedicated to stopping its unfold. At its height, the Conficker worm infected legion computers, leading anti-virus researchers to decision it the “super bug,” or “super worm.” however the important mystery of Conficker, that still infects an oversized variety of computers, is that nobody is aware of what it had been meant to do: the botnet army was ne'er used for any specific purpose, to the simplest of anyone’s data. Conficker’s real purpose still confounds security specialists.

3) agent.btz (2008) This piece of malware’s claim to fame is that it briefly forced the Pentagon to issue a blanket ban on thumb drives and even contributed to the creation of a wholly new military department, U.S. Cyber Command. Agent.btz spreads through infected thumb drives, putting in malware that steals knowledge. When agent.btz was found on Pentagon computers in 2008, officers suspected the work of foreign spies. Former Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynne later wrote that agent.btz created “a digital beachhead, from that knowledge can be transferred to servers underneath foreign management.” although some anti-virus specialists have controversial the rivalry that the virus was the creation of an overseas administrative body, its impact was to create cyber war a proper a part of U.S. military strategy.

) Zeus (2007) there's no shortage of malware kits that focus on personal info, however Zeus has become the go-to tool for several of today’s cyber criminals and is quickly offered purchasable within the cyber crime underworld. It may be accustomed lift passwords additionally as files, serving to to make a literal underground economy for compromised identities that may be bought and sold-out for as very little fifty cents. within the age of web banking and on-line looking, a compromised identity is far over simply a reputation and Social Security number: it’s your address, date of birth, mother’s last name, and even your secret security queries (your 1st pet, your favorite teacher, or your supporter from grade school).

5) PoisonIvy (2005) PoisonIvy could be a laptop security nightmare; it permits the offender to in secret management the infected user’s laptop. Malware like PoisonIvy is understood as a “remote access trojan,” as a result of it provides full management to the offender through a backdoor. Once the virus is put in, the offender will activate the controls of the targeted laptop to record or manipulate its content or maybe use the computer’s speaker and digital camera to record audio and video. Once thought of as a tool for amateur hackers, PoisonIvy has been employed in refined attacks against dozens of Western companies, as well as those concerned in defense and chemical industries, in line with a white book written by Symantec, the pc security firm. The attacks were derived back to China.

6) MyDoom (2004) MyDoom muscled its means into the malware world in 2004, quickly infecting some a meg computers and launching a huge distributed denial of service attack, that overwhelms a target by flooding it with info from multiple systems. The virus unfold through email as what perceived to be a bounced message. once the unsuspecting victim opened the e-mail, the malicious code downloaded itself so pilfered the new victim’s Outlook address book. From there, it unfold to the victim’s friends, family and colleagues. MyDoom unfold quicker than any worm seen previous.

7) Fizzer (2003) By 2003, several worms were spreading over e-mail, however Fizzer was a wholly new creature. If earlier worms, like Code Red (see below), were regarding mischief, Fizzer was all regarding cash. whereas some at first unemployed the seriousness of the worm as a result of it wasn’t as fast paced as Code Red, Fizzer was a lot of insidious. “What makes Fizzer stand out is that it is the 1st instance of a worm created for gain,” says Roel Schouwenberg, a senior scientist at Kaspersky, associate anti-virus company. “Computers infected with Fizzer started causing out pharmacy spam.” In different words, Fizzer didn’t simply take over your address book to unfold for the sake of spreading, it used your address book to transport the currently acquainted erotica and pills spam. Fizzer was followed by known spam-inducing worms, like SoBig, that became threatening enough that Microsoft even offered a $250,000 bounty for info resulting in the arrest of its creator.

8) Slammer (2003) In Jan 2003, the fast-spreading Slammer well-tried that an online worm might disrupt personal and public services, a harbinger for future mayhem. Slammer works by cathartic a deluge of network packets, units of knowledge transmitted over the web, conveyance the web on several servers to a close to screeching halt. Through a classic denial of service attack, Slammer had a quite real impact on key services. Among its list of victims: Bank of America’s ATMs, a 911 emergency response system in Washington State, and maybe most disturbingly, a nuclear plant in Ohio.

9) Code Red (2001) Compared to trendy malware, Code Red appears like associate nearly kinder, gentler version of a threat. however once it sweptwing across computers worldwide in 2001, it caught security specialists off guard by exploiting a flaw in Microsoft web info Server. That allowed the worm to deface and take down some websites. maybe most unforgettably, Code Red with success brought down the whitehouse.gov web site and made different government agencies to briefly take down their own public websites additionally. although later worms have since overshadowed Code Red, it’s still remembered by anti-virus specialists as a turning purpose for malware owing to its fast unfold.

10) Love Letter/I LOVE YOU (2000) Back in 2000, legion individuals created the error of gap associate innocent wanting email attachment labelled merely, “I Love You.” rather than revealing the dear confession of a secret admirer, as maybe readers had hoped, the file unleashed a computer program that overwrote the users’ image files. Then like associate old style letter gone nuclear, the virus e-mailed itself to the primary fifty contacts within the user’s Windows address book. whereas by today’s standards, personal letter is nearly quaint, it did cause wide-scale issues for laptop users. It solely took hours for personal letter to become a world pandemic, partly as a result of it vie on a basic human emotion: the need to be favored. therein sense, personal letter can be thought of the primary socially designed worm.