The 5 Deadliest Computer Viruses

Some malicious software will just spy on your surfing habits, other viruses may just slow your computer down. Some of the simplest viruses have been very damaging. All of them waste your computer processing power and slow down you computer in one way or another. There have been quite a few viruses that have made fame for the amount of damage and destruction they have wreaked. Here is a look at arguably the top 5 deadliest viruses seen to date, in chronological order, not all of them are the direct damage causers, but they were all significant, being milestones and the first of their kind. All the more reason to be calling for  business IT support. If you have been using computers since Windows was launched, you might remember all of these.

The Brain (1986). This was the beginning of all our virus fun. Created in 1986 by two Pakistani brother that did not do much harm in what it did to computers. It left the name and contact details in the boot sector of the creators. Despite their claims of no malicious intent. It became the model for the proliferation of all viruses and malware to come. In effect it caused a great amount of damage and destruction. Very famous.

Melissa (1999). Anyone who used computers in their work place in the late 1999s heard of Melissa. This was the first virus that was sent by email, and then automatically send on to the first 50 addresses of the user’s address book. Melissa was famous and made news headlines across the world as it rapidly wreaked havoc in a matter of days crashing systems and damaging computers. It took advantage of Microsoft’s Outlook express, then the main email program used by the majority of computers. You can imagine the amount of exponential damage that was caused within a matter of days. All of this started happening without anyone knowing, before it was too late. IT support had a whole new meaning.

ILOVEYOU (2000). Soon after Melissa and working in much the same principle, this was the first virus that tricked the user to open the attachment by pretending to be a love letter. This virus caused a huge amount of damage before it was too late. It overwrote and deleted files and sent copies of itself out without anyone knowing. It is still considered one of the worst worms ever.

Klez (2001). Just when we thought that we had a handle on viruses, Klez turned up, and still continues to plague us in a number of versions today. It was the beginning of ‘spoofing’. It would make emails seem to come from someone else other than the sender, and so now we could not trust even our closest friends. This pioneered a wave of viruses and other malware that continue to plague us today, and does not require Microsoft’s Outlook Express, spreading itself through open networks.

Benjamin (2002). Destroyed safe file-sharing for us all. This file downloaded itself through tricking the users to download it from the Kazaa network. This virus started replicating itself on a single computer and slowly taking up space in that computer. It continued to spread around. It overloaded users hard-drives and slowed down networks. The real damage that it caused was to file sharing forever. It became the blue print and opened the flood gates for thousands of malicious programs and viruses to spread around the globe through newer and more sophisticated means.

Why viruses were created is still unknown… just for malicious intent, or even as a way to get us to buy and keep buying anti-virus software. The fact is, they are here to stay, and the next bombshell to hit could be today. Try and stay protected.

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