Computer viruses are indeed causing more severe damage than you might have imagined. Besides the fact that millions of malware come to life yearly, they are also causing economical losses worth billions to the commercial companies. They are hard to detect and thus, it is advised to follow guidelines while browsing.
Here are the top 10 most deadly viruses that can lead to severe damage to your computer.
1. ILOVEYOU
ILOVEYOU often named as love bug is an email computer worm that has damaged around 10 million windows PCs so far. It transmitted through emails with the subject line ILOVEYOU and replicated itself using outlook to speed up its process.
2. Code Red
Code Red is categorized under Server Jamming Worm which damaged computers with Microsoft’s web server and targeted other enterprise networks. It was named after ‘Mountain Dew code red’, a beverage because the discoverers of the virus were having the same drink at the time of the discovery.
3. Melissa
Melissa is categorized under Macro virus and enacted as an email worm that hi-jacked around 1 million PCs within a few days of its release. It replicated itself by sending mass mail to the contacts of the infected user. It transmitted through emails with the subject line ‘important message from’ with a document with pornographic sites and replicated itself using outlook to speed up its process.
4. Storm Trojan
Storm Trojan is categorized under phishing backdoor Trojan horse and enacted as another email worm that initially spread with mass mail regarding weather forecasting of storms. It is recognized by multiple names affected significant numbers of PCs in Europe and the USA.
5. Sasser
Sasser in another worm that specifically attacked prior versions of Windows such as Windows XP and Windows 2000. Though it can affect PCs without human interventions, it could be stopped easily through firewalls and making updates. It was named so because it exploited through buffer flow in LSASS.
6. My Doom
My Doom is categorized under is an email computer worm that set a world record for a fastest spreading worm. It affected nearly 50 million computers and is believed to target SCO’s group. It was named after by a McAfee employee, he noticed ‘mydom’ in the program code.
7. Zeus
Zeus is categorized under Trojan malware package that spread through drive-by downloads. It is used for enacting crimes such as cracking the bank details and stealing data through form grabbing. It often enacts as a gateway of Cryptolocker.
8. Conficker
Conficker is categorized under computer worm that specifically targets Windows OS and peeps in through its loopholes. It affected millions of computers in over 190 countries which led to its entitlement of the largest known worm infection.
9. Stuxnet
Stuxnet is understood as a cyber weapon that specifically affected SCADA systems that heavily damaged Iran’s nuclear program. It is classified as a computer worm that targets PLCs through Microsoft OS and Siemens step7 software.
10. SoBig
SoBig is categorized as an email worm that spreads in 6 variants named as SoBig.A, SoBig.B, SoBig.C, SoBig.D, SoBig.E, and SoBig.F. It is often understood as a Trojan horse that spreads through e-mails with short subject tags such as approved, details, thank you, etc. We would be delighted to know your views below.
