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This virus was written in 1971 – before the concept of a computer virus even existed – by Bob Thomas, and is widely credited as the first example of a self-replicating computer virus (though not the first MS-DOS virus – widely recognised to be ‘Brain’).
It was not designed to corrupt, rather it displayed the message ‘I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!’. If only all computer hackers were this nice.
Michelangelo – 1991
This ticking time-bomb of a virus was programmed to execute on Michelangelo’s birthday – March 6. Until that point, the virus would lay dormant before springing to life and overwriting a number of sectors on a users hard disk. The infection caused a stir among security experts, who predicted widespread data loss, though in reality only 10-20,0000 cases were reported.
ILOVEYOU – 2000
The ILOVEYOU virus successfully attacked millions of computers in 2000, causing billions of dollars worth of losses to business. The virus disguised itself as a text file in an email which, when opened, would automatically send itself to every contact in a users address book.
In addition, it attacked certain media files stored on a drive – one German newspaper is reported to have lost over 2,000 photos from its archive. Today, it is widely regarded as one of the most successful computer viruses of all time, with security experts still reporting sightings of the code in the ‘wild’.
Code Red – 2001
In July 2001, the Code Red virus caused widespread panic after disrupting a number of websites, by defacing them with the stock phrase ‘HELLO! Welcome to http://www.worm.com! Hacked By Chinese!’.
In August 2001 the virus launched a Denial of Service (DoS) attack on a number of key US government websites. It was later updated to the Code Red II, which appeared less than a month after the initial attack and wreaked even more chaos.
Conficker – 2008
This worm took the fight to the armed forces of France and Britain, famously infecting both defence systems, along with up to 15million Windows computers worldwide. The virus links a number of infected computers to create a virtual computer that can be remotely controlled by its operators. The virus also contained a series of mechanisms for updating itself via the network, and to deploy ‘payloads’.
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