3. iloveyou bug (2000)
The iloveyou bug was first spotted in Hong Kong and it had spread gradually to the west. It had infected business and government computers. Anti-virus companies in U.S had received many calls from their affected customers which had reported widespread infections.
Computer security experts estimated software damage had amounted to $100 million and had even predicted that the cost may even exceed $1billion.
The bug had even infected the United States Senate computer system and that time, the e-mail system was forcefully shut down but in U.S Congress, only minimal effects were seen.
In Hong Kong, the bug had affected the public relation firms as well as several investment firms. The Asian Wall Street and the Dow Jones Newswires were affected by the bug.
How it works? Many had fallen to the iloveyou bug because they had received an e-mail in which a “love letter” was attached. In the file, a Visual Basic script which has the virus payload. When the attached e-mail is opened, the computer will then be infected and it will spread by sending itself again to another e-mail and it will be send unknowingly to another e-mail user in the address book.
A Filipino computer student, Onel de Guzman, was the creator of the iloveyou bug. The worldwide manhunt had started after the attack was done, which culminated the arrest of de Guzman. However, the Justice Department of the Philippines had ordered the release of de Guzman since there were no laws against hacking in the Philippines during that time.
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