The most dangerous computer virus ever: the story of the SoBig virus
It was the summer of 2003 when the SoBig virus began wreaking havoc on computer systems around the world. The virus, which was first discovered on August 18, 2003, was able to spread quickly and easily due to its ability to take advantage of a then-unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Windows.
Once installed on a system, the SoBig virus would begin replicating itself and sending out copies to any email addresses it could find on the infected computer. The emails would typically contain an infection attachment, which, if opened, would install the virus onto the unsuspecting victim’s computer.
The SoBig virus would then proceed to delete any antivirus software that was present on the infected system in an attempt to avoid detection. The virus also had the ability to disable security and firewall settings, which made it even more difficult to remove.
Once SoBig had taken control of a system, it would start to send out mass emails from the infected computer in an attempt to spread itself even further. This quickly resulted in the virus becoming a serious global threat.
SoBig was finally brought under control after a German computer programmer named Sven Jaschan was arrested and charged in connection with the creation of the virus. Jaschan, who was just 18 years old at the time, admitted to creating the virus and released the source code to the authorities.
Despite the fact that SoBig is no longer a threat, it remains one of the most dangerous viruses of all time due to the sheer amount of damage it was able to cause in such a short period of time. Even today, over a decade later, SoBig is still considered one of the most destructive computer viruses ever created..View Source
The most dangerous computer virus ever: the story of the Anna Kournikova virus
In the early days of the internet, computer viruses were relatively harmless. They might delete a few files or make your screen go haywire, but they weren’t capable of causing serious damage. That all changed in 2001 with the release of the Anna Kournikova virus.
Named after the famous tennis player, the Anna Kournikova virus was a piece of malicious code that was disguised as a photo of the attractive athlete. Once opened, the virus would automatically send itself to everyone in your address book, making it one of the first “self-propagating” viruses.
But the real danger of the Anna Kournikova virus lay in its payload. Unlike other viruses which might delete files or corrupt data, the Anna Kournikova virus would encrypt all of the files on your hard drive, making them completely inaccessible. The only way to decrypt the files was to pay a “ransom” of $200 to the virus’ creator.
Fortunately, most people who were infected by the Anna Kournikova virus didn’t end up paying the ransom. But the virus was still incredibly disruptive, and caused an estimated $10 million in damage.
Since the Anna Kournikova virus, there have been other viruses that have caused even more damage. The MyDoom virus, for example, was responsible for over $38 billion in damage, while the WannaCry virus caused over $4 billion in damage in just a few short weeks.
But the Anna Kournikova virus remains the most dangerous computer virus of all time because it was the first to show just how much damage a virus could cause. In the years since, viruses have only become more sophisticated and more destructive. As long as there are people with malicious intent, there will always be a risk of a new, dangerous virus being released into the wild.
Visit malwarezero.org to learn more about most dangerous computer virus ever. Disclaimer: We used this website as a reference for this blog post.