hacker on a laptop
KRISANAPONG DETRAPHIPHATGETTY IMAGES
Viruses! Worms! Trojan Horses! Spyware! Adware!
All of these types of malware can wreak havoc on your computer. They jeopardize your files, hold your documents hostage, and plug your computer into botnets that spam the website you know and love. Since the dawn of the internet, hackers have been looking for ways to take advantage of its weaknesses, and internet security officials have been hot on their trail.
This week, Popular Mechanics is celebrating Internet Week, so they’ve compiled a list of the oddest, scariest, fastest-spreading and most expensive malware attacks in history. Hopefully none of these sound too familiar.
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MATT ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY/ IZUSEKSQL Slammer
Year: 2003
Computers affected: 75,000 in ten minutes.
Financial damage: $1.2 billion
Instead of taking advantage of curious, unsuspecting email users, the SLAMMER worm targeted and took advantage of a bug in the code of Microsoft’s SQL servers. It was devastating and spread rapidly across the world, affecting 75,000 servers in ten minutes.
The internet slowed to a stop. Internet and cell phone service in South Korea ground to a halt, airlines were unable to process tickets and bank ATMs stopped working.1 of 11
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NINA MARSIGLIO / EYEEM/ MATT ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHYMelissa
Year: 1999
Financial Cost: $80 million
The Melissa virus targeted millions of Microsoft Outlook users with an email stating: “Here is that document you asked for… don’t show anyone else
.”Sounds intriguing, right? Millions of curious users opened the file within the email, titled LIST.doc, which immediately spammed their computers with an unnerving amount of pop-up porn websites. Unfortunately, the email was then forwarded to 50 of the user’s email contacts.While it didn’t damage files, it slowed down email services for hundreds of thousands of computers. It’s considered one of the first “social engineering” viruses, which take advantage of users emotions to do harm.
For those of you puzzling over who Melissa is: the virus’s creator named the worm after a stripper he met in Florida.2 of 11
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MRS/ MATT ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHYILOVEYOU
Year: 2000
Computers affected: 45 million in two days
Financial cost: $10 billion
The ILOVEYOU worm preyed upon computer users looking for one thing: love. Users would receive an email with an attached “love letter.” Instead of quoting Byron, Shakespeare or Austen, the letter, a visual basic script, downloaded a program that overwrote any files with the .JPEG, .DOC and .MP3 extensions, among others. What’s worse? The malware then forwarded the malicious letter to 50 of the user’s email contacts.
Talk about “spreading the love.”3 of 11
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NOAA/ MATT ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHYStorm Worm
Year: 2007
Computers affected: 1.5 million machines
Financial damage: $10 billion
StormWorm—a type of trojan horse attack and not a worm that sends malware to other computers—tricked people into clicking on an email link to an article about a storm raging across Europe, “230 Dead as storm batters Europe.” The hackers also targeted curious users with headlines the “U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has kicked German Chancellor.”
Hundreds of thousands of people clicked in the first few hours. It sought out Microsoft Information Systems that weren’t properly updated.4 of 11ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW
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AL BELLO / STAFF/ MATT ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHYAnna Kournikova
Year: 2001
Computers affected: More than 100,000
Created by a 20-year-old Dutch man named Jan de Wit, the Anna Kournikova worm tricked users into opening an image of the famous tennis player. Except. It wasn’t a tennis player. It was a visual basic script worm that downloaded the file onto the computer, multiplied, and then spammed the user’s email contacts and toppled computer servers around the world.
De Wit felt so bad when he realized the influence of his worm, that he eventually turned himself in. Thankfully, this worm wasn’t a destructive one—just one that’s rather…embarrassing to have been caught with.5 of 11
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MATT ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY/ TOWFIQU PHOTOGRAPHYCode Red
Year: 2001
Computers affected: Hundreds of thousands
Financial damage: $2 billion
The CODE RED worm terrified computer users in 2001, when it took over millions of computers, splashing a page across screens that read: “CODE RED: WELCOME TO WORM.COM HACKED BY CHINESE.”
It was a type of computer attack called a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS), which meant that it spammed websites with higher-than-normal traffic volumes. The worm struck hundreds of thousands of machines in just a few hours.6 of 11
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MATT ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY/ AIMINTANGRobinn Hood
Year: 2019
Computers affected: Baltimore city government computers
Financial damage: $18.2 million
In April, 2018, city officials in the city of Baltimore, M.D. realized that the files on their computers had been seized by destructive agents. Attackers sent a digital ransom note requesting three bitcoin (approximately $17,000) in exchange for each captive system or, if the city preferred, a lump sum of 13 bitcoin ($75,000) for all of them. Other cities such as Greenville, N.C., Amarillo, Tex. and Atlanta, G.A., have faced similar attacks, too.7 of 11
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MATT ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY/ YUI MOK – PA IMAGES / CONTRIBUTORWannaCry
Year: 2017
Computers affected: 230,000
Financial damage: $4 billion
In 2017, a large coordinated attack on computer systems across Britain, Spain, Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan resulted in the hostile takeover of servers in those countries. WannaCry is a type of virus called ransomware. It takes control of a users computer, files, accounts—everything—and asks for money in return for access. British hospitals were forced to turn away patients, and the NHS was asked for a paltry $300 ransom from WannaCry’s creators.8 of 11
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MATT ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY/ KTSDESIGN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYStuxnet
Year: 2009-2010
Computers affected: Iran’s uranium enrichment facility
STUXNET was the first virus to specifically target computers that control an industrial system, according to Smithsonian. Through a tainted flash drive, it disabled Iran’s uranium enrichment facility in Natanz. It was designed to destroy Iran’s nuclear missile arsenal by infiltrating computers and forcing them spin Iranian centrifuges so fast that they exploded.
Experts suspect that both Israel and the U.S. played a role in the attack. Were the same type of attack to be waged on, say, the U.S. power grid, it would cost upwards of $1 trillion.9 of 11
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BOONCHAI WEDMAKAWAND/ MATT ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHYMy Doom
Year: 2004
Computers affected:
Financial damage: $38 billion
MyDoom not only spread over email, but made its way around the web by taking over peer-to-peer file sharing programs like Google Docs. The malware was so prolific, ZDNet reports, that, at its heyday, it constituted about a quarter of all sent emails worldwide. Google was so concerned about the worm, it offered a $250,000 reward to anyone who could provide information about the creator.
MyDoom harnessed infected computers, and pulled them into a botnet to spam important websites.
Visit http://hugeintech.com/2019/11/06/11-malware-attacks-that-almost-wrecked-the-internet/ for image views
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