The most costly computer viruses
in history

In the early 1990s, computer viruses were a relatively new phenomenon, and their effect was not yet fully understood. However, even in those early days, there were a few viruses that did manage to cause significant damage. Here are some of the most costly computer viruses in history.

The Michelangelo Virus

Named after the famous Renaissance artist, the Michelangelo virus was first discovered in February 1992. It was designed to infect MS-DOS systems on March 6th – the birthday of its namesake. Once a system was infected, the virus would remain dormant until that date, at which point it would overwrite the hard drive, rendering the computer unusable.

The virus was relatively widespread, with an estimated 5% of all computers infected. The damage it caused was estimated to be in the range of $5-$10 billion.

The Code Red Worm

This virus first appeared in July 2001 and quickly spread across the internet, infecting hundreds of thousands of systems in just a few days. The worm took advantage of a vulnerability in Microsoft’s IIS web server software, and once a system was infected, it would attempt to infect other systems on the same network.

The Code Red worm caused significant disruption, particularly to government and business networks. The cost of the damage caused was estimated to be around $2 billion.

The Slammer Worm

The Slammer worm was first discovered in January 2003. Unlike most viruses, which rely on some sort of user interaction to spread, the Slammer worm was a “broadcast” virus that simply scanned for vulnerable systems and then infected them. This resulted in it spreading incredibly quickly, with it estimated that it infected 75,000 systems within 10 minutes of its release.

The worm took advantage of a vulnerability in Microsoft SQL Server, and as a result, caused significant disruption to various business and government networks. The cost of the damage caused by the Slammer worm was estimated to be around $1.2 billion.

The MyDoom Virus

The MyDoom virus was first discovered in January 2004. It was designed to spread quickly and to cause significant damage to the systems it infected. The virus did this by, amongst other things, setting up a “backdoor” on the infected system that could be used to remotely control the system and by launching distributed denial-of-service attacks against a number of targets, including the SCO Group and Microsoft.

The MyDoom virus was incredibly successful, spreading to millions of systems and causing billions of dollars in damage. In fact, it is still considered to be the fastest-spreading virus of all time.

The SoBig Worm

The SoBig worm first appeared in August 2003. It was designed to spread quickly and to generate a large amount of spam email. The worm accomplished this by, amongst other things, searching for email addresses on the infected system and then sending itself out to those addresses.

The SoBig worm was extremely successful, spreading to millions of systems and causing billions of dollars in damage. In fact, it is still considered to be one of the most costly computer viruses in history..Click here for more info

The most destructive computer viruses

The Mydoom virus is considered to be one of the most destructive computer viruses of all time. It was first discovered in 2004, and in the years since, it has been responsible for causing billions of dollars in damage. The Mydoom virus is a type of malware known as a worm, which is a type of malware that is designed to spread itself by infecting other computers. Unlike most viruses, which are typically spread by email attachments or downloads, the Mydoom virus is spread by infected emails that are sent from one infected computer to another. When a computer is infected with the Mydoom virus, the virus will automatically reply to any email that it receives, and will also forward itself to any addresses that it finds in the contact list of the infected computer. This makes the Mydoom virus extremely difficult to contain, as it can quickly spread to a large number of computers.

The Mydoom virus was first discovered in January 2004, when it began spreading rapidly across the internet. The virus was first discovered in the United States, but soon spread to other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. The Mydoom virus caused a massive amount of damage, as it infected an estimated 50 million computers worldwide. The virus caused billions of dollars in damage, as businesses and individuals were forced to deal with the effects of the virus. In addition to the damage caused by the virus itself, the Mydoom virus also caused a significant amount of damage to the reputation of the companies that were affected by the virus. Several large companies, including Microsoft and Google, were forced to deal with the negative publicity that came as a result of the virus.

The Mydoom virus is considered to be one of the most destructive computer viruses of all time, and its legacy is still felt today. The virus caused billions of dollars in damage, and its effects are still being felt by the companies and individuals that were affected by the virus.

Visit malwarezero.org to learn more about computer viruses. Disclaimer: We used this website as a reference for this blog post.