The most dangerous computer virus ever: the story of the Code Red virus
In July 2001, a new computer virus began making its way across the internet, infecting servers running Microsoft’s IIS web server software. The virus, which came to be known as Code Red, was one of the most destructive viruses ever seen.
Code Red was a worm, a type of virus that is able to spread itself without any help from users. Once a computer was infected with Code Red, the virus would scan the internet for other computers running IIS and infect them as well.
The virus would then modify the web pages hosted on the infected computer, adding a message that read “Hacked by Chinese!”.
Code Red was particularly destructive because it generated a large amount of network traffic. Every time an infected computer scanned for other computers to infect, it would send out a request that was nearly identical to the ones web browsers send when they request a web page.
This caused infected computers to overload the network, making it difficult or even impossible for other computers to communicate. In some cases, the virus was able to bring down entire networks.
Fortunately, Code Red was relatively easy to remove and many computers were quickly cleaned of the virus. However, the damage had been done and Code Red remains one of the most infamous computer viruses of all time.Learn more
The most dangerous computer virus ever: the story of the Sasser virus
In May 2004, a computer virus started infecting computers all over the world. The virus, called Sasser, was particularly dangerous because it was able to spread itself automatically – without any help from humans.
Sasser was written by a 17-year-old German student called Sven Jaschke. He later admitted that he had created the virus in order to “earn some money” by selling anti-virus software.
Jaschke made the virus available on the internet, and it quickly started infecting computers. Within a few days, Sasser had infected millions of computers in more than 150 countries.
The virus caused a lot of damage, especially to businesses. Many companies were forced to close down their computers in order to stop the virus spreading. This meant that workers couldn’t do their jobs and companies lost a lot of money.
The cost of cleaning up the mess caused by Sasser was estimated to be around $ billions.
Sasser was caught and arrested by the police in 2004. He was sentenced to two years in prison in 2006.
The Sasser virus was one of the most dangerous computer viruses of all time. It caused a lot of damage and cost businesses billions of dollars.
Visit malwarezero.org to learn more about most dangerous computer virus ever. Disclaimer: We used this website as a reference for this blog post.