8. Slammer (2003)
SQL Slammer is a worm that had targeted the weakness found in the database software of the Microsoft. The worm had taken advantage to the old security loophole in the server software. Once the worm had infected the server, it will then send several data requests that will be forwarded to other internet address, thus, increasing the chances of infecting other computers. However, the worm itself does not infect any desktop computer and it cannot replicate itself in the e-mails. But the effect was devastating, it had bogged down networks and had caused several websites to go offline. Also See: Top 10 most famous & deadliest swords in the world + their history (With Pictures)
The spread began in January 25, 2003, as it started spreading, it had doubled its size every 8.5 seconds. Within ten minutes, it was able to infect 90% of the most vulnerable hosts. During its peak or around 3 minutes after it was released, the worm already had fifty five million scans per second in the internet.
Experts believed that it had affected millions of computers worldwide. Many countries were affected but the worst hit was South Korea.
In South Korea, where three quarters of population enjoy internet access, the online accessibility was crippled for eight hours.
Slammer worm was able to infect 75,000 hosts and had network outages that had resulted to cancelled airline flights and some problems in the cash machines.
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