ILOVEYOU virus | A not so “lovely” computer virus | Techday, May 4th
On this TECHDAY in history, on May 4th 2000, the ILOVEYOU (aka Love Letter or Love Bug) virus/worm began to spread to PCs around the world. A VBS script that spread via email, it would eventually infect millions of computers. It would, also, cost billions of dollars in damages. It was one of the fastest-moving and most widespread computer viruses in history.
The worm, believed to have originated in the Pandacan neighborhood of Manila in the Philippines, traveled across daybreak to Europe and later America.
The virus, written in Visual Basic script, included an attachment with the subject line “ILOVEYOU” and the file name “LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.vbs.” When the attachment was opened, the virus would send itself to everyone in the victim’s address book and overwrite certain types of files on the victim’s computer, including image files and documents.
The people responsible for creating the ILOVEYOU virus were later caught and sentenced to prison. The incident served as a wake-up call for the importance of computer security and the need to be cautious when opening email attachments, even if they appear to be from someone you know.
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Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology
