Earth’s Deadliest Computer Virus
Computers have become an integral part of our lives. We use it for work, leisure, education and to store the data stored in it. Most of the time they work fine, but sometimes our computers suddenly start behaving strangely. If so, it may be affected by a computer virus.
Computer viruses can threaten the health of your computer and make it “sick”. Like organisms, they can also replicate and spread to other computers on your network via infected email messages, files, and USB drives. They can cause anything from annoying pop-ups to allowing others to take control of your device. The worst thing that can happen to a virus is that it wipes all your hard drives, or you get ransomware where someone steals all your data and charges you a ransom to get it back.
Viruses can also cause major global disruption due to the interconnectedness we enjoy today. This happened in 2004, when a virus called MyDoom caused global computer chaos. MyDoom is particularly insidious, spreading so quickly through emails with unwanted attachments that, once opened, can spread the virus to everyone in your email network. Nearly 20 years later, MyDoom is still considered the worst (computer) virus in history, causing over $38 billion in damage.
No one knows who created the MyDoom virus or why they decided to release it, which begs the question, who actually created a computer virus?
Despite their harmful effects, viruses are valuable in educating users about computer and network security. No one in the tech world should be complacent, as other “MyDooms” may be on the way. We need to take technology security seriously, and white hat hackers can help us all prepare for the future and protect ourselves.
