Like Brain and Creeper before it, the Morris worm isn't classed as malware, because it is another example of an experiment gone wrong. The damage of the lost productivity is estimated to have cost between $100,000 and $10,000,000. The Morris Worm holds the notorious distinction of the first computer worm to gain mainstream media attention - because, within hours of being connected to the early internet, it had infected thousands of computers.
It was called Reaper.Īlternatively, some believe the title of the first computer virus should go to one called Brain, because unlike Creeper, it could self-replicate itself without the need to remove itself from a previous system first - something many forms of malicious code now do.
Shortly afterward, a new form of software was created to operate in a similar way - but with the aim of removing Creeper.
While Creeper wasn't created for malicious purposes or performing any activity beyond causing mild annoyance, it was arguably the first example of software operating in this way. For the most part, when it found a new machine, it removed itself from the previous computer, meaning it wasn't capable of spreading to multiple computers at once.
Here's the perfect gift to protect anyone with a PC, Mac, iPhone, or Android.Wikimedia Commons has media related to Computer worms.
Spread a pacifist, anti-nuclear political messageĪ helpful worm meant to install security patches and removes Blaster worm if the computer is infected by it.Īppeared very rapidly after announcement of Internet Security Systems vulnerability It provides a backdoor server and allows a remote intruder to gain access and control over the computer via an IRC channel. W32/Checkout, W32.Mubla, W32/IRCBot-WB, and Targets Operating System running Oracle Databases Opened up a backdoor to allow command and control over the IRC network Was disguised as e-mail from United States government.ĭ, the Sapphire Worm, SQL_HEL, W32/SQLSlammer Germany, possibly from National Democratic Party of Germany Spread through e-mail with text like "I send you this file in order to have your advice." This would continue in an infinite loop until the computer is shut down manually. Killing lsass causes the computer to reboot one minute later, which would cause sasser to run again. At startup, it kills the process lsass.exe, a windows process which handles file permissions. Originally suspected to be connected to Al Qaeda because of release date uses multiple infection vectors
It spread by exploiting known vulnerabilities in UNIX-based systems, cracked weak passwords, and periodically altered its process ID to avoid detection by system Novarg, Mimail.R, Shimgapiįastest-spreading e-mail worm known used to attack SCO 2, 2002 Although created for academic purposes, the negligence of the author unintentionally caused the worm to act as a denial of service attack. Widely considered to be the first computer worm. Targeted MySpace and Facebook users with a heading of "Happy Holidays"
On the first day of any month, if the time was after 5pm, Kak displayed a popup message box that read: "Driver Memory Error - Kagou-Anti-Kro$oft says not today !" Dismissing it would reboot the computer and then display the message again. Spread through zipped documents in a spam e-mail. EXE's, key logger, slow mass mailerĮxploited Microsoft Internet Information Server security holes.Īttack computers that had previously been infected by the Mydoom worm. arz,, W32/Autorun-AMS, Worm:Win32/Autorun.UD
Spread through an Indonesian e-mail headed with "stop the collapse in this country" destroys firewallsĮxploited Microsoft Internet Information Services to deface web pages and DOS a few set IPs.
Targeted toward Bill Gates contained message "billy gates why do you make this possible ? Stop making money and fix your BackDoor.Generic.1138, W32/Korbo-B, Worm/Brontok.a,, W32/Brontok.C.worm, and Win32/Brontok.E, 3, 2005 Gruel.exe Makes all exe's unusable so the computer probably can't reboot Installed a keylogger distributed logged information This list is incomplete you can help by adding missing items.