Spotlight on Malware: ILOVEYOU (the worm)

To all the readers on this fine February 14th, Happy Valentines Day. To celebrate, let's look at a worm that has the name ILOVEYOU.

The worm called ILOVEYOU, also called loveletter, arrived as an email attachment in 2000. This virus caused over 5.5 billion dollars in damage to business, the military, and to normal users. As a worm, it is infamous for not only causing that much damage, but also for the high number of modifications that could be made to it. Once infected, the worm overwrites files that have certain filenames. With a bit of programing knowledge, someone could make this worm more destructive by choosing to overwrite critical system files. If this is done, it makes your computer about as useful as a paperweight. It comes as a attachment claiming to be a text file from someone in your contacts, and the email claims that the "text file" is a letter professing the love of the sender to you. So you would likely trust this, you would wounder why your friend was professing his or her love to you. This is where both the names came from, the message title says ILOVEYOU, and the email claims that the file is a love letter. It is estimated that no business escaped the infectious charms of ILOVEYOU. If you are a victim, the virus spreads by mass mailing your email contacts the exact file that you thought was a love letter. And you were left cold, alone, and ashamed. *Tilts face down as if ashamed*

The email body said: "kindly check the attached love letter coming from me." So kindly comment below with any questions or comments and you may kindly get a response coming from me.*Smiles*