We use computers every day and we use antivirus programs to keep our computers running smoothly. But, sometimes no matter what we do we get a virus and some of them are a pretty major deal. Here are just a few of the most harmful viruses that we have witnessed in the last few years:
Back in 2004 a worm named Sasser was discovered. It worked to slow down your computer and in most cases computers would crash. It was hard to reset after an infection and it basically rendered a computer useless. Millions were effected as the worm took advantage of a buffer overflow vulnerability which controlled the security policy of local accounts. Luckily there was a patch put in place to help stop the spread of the virus but it is estimated that another million users got it anyway as they didn't update after the patch fix was in place. All told, Sasser caused $18 billion in damages and took out critical computer infrastructures around the world.
Another worm, this one called Conficker appeared in 2008. It was also known as Downup or Downadup but whatever you called it you hoped you didn't become a victim. It infected computers using flaws in the operating system to create a botnet. About 9 million computers were infected worldwide including those used by governments, big businesses and the individual. Over $9 billion in damage happened as a result of Conficker which would reset account lockout policies, and block Windows updates. It would also randomly turn off services and lock out user accounts. After all of this, it then turned the computers into botnet slaves to scam the user out of money. Thankfully, this is now a thing of the past as the flaws have been fixed and this virus is just one for the history books.
Yet another worm was identified in 2004, this one called Mydoom. This one was fast spreading and went out as an email transmission error. It contained an attachment of itself and automatically sent itself to everyone on your mailing list. Like other worms, it too opened backdoor access for remote access and launched a denial of service attack on the SCO Group. This worm was a major deal, as it caused over $38 million in damages and lost productivity.
As computers get more technical so to do those that mean them harm. What will be the next one to attack our computers? Stay tuned.
