In the 21st century the number of computer viruses considerably increased. To be able to tackle these viruses you need to install an effective anti-virus software like the Antivirus and Security All-in-One-Suite, which, besides checking for any computer viruses, will be able to block pop-ups, spam and even stop hacker attacks on your computer.
Our computer virus list features descriptions of a large number of dangerous computer viruses, worms and Trojans that appeared starting with 2000 and till this day.
Inta - 2000
This computer virus was released by the members of an underground group called 29 A. As soon as the virus was released, it attacked Windows 2000 files even before the software giant, Microsoft, managed to announce the commercial version of its OS. Inta was the first computer virus to infect Windows 2000.
LoveLetter - 2000
This script virus caused a real pandemic on May 5, 2000. Most users were unaware of the fact that VBS and TXT files could cause harm, but they did, being infected with this dangerous virus. As soon as the virus is uploaded, it destroys numerous files and then sends itself to everyone in the MS Outlook contact list.
Timofonica - first cellular virus - 2000
For the first time the Timofonica virus was spotted on June 6, 2000. It was the first mobile phone virus. Besides being able to spread through email, the virus also sent messages to different mobile phones that were in the MoviStar cellular network, owned by Telefonica, global telecommunications giant.
Liberty virus - 2000
This computer virus was identified in August. It is considered to be the first Trojan to be able to affect PalmOS of Palm Pilot, which is why it was included in our computer virus list. When the virus was installed on the machine, it deleted files. However, the good news is that the virus could not replicate itself.
Mandragore - 2001
The year 2001 was the one in which instant messaging services registered a significant increase in popularity. Some of them were ICQ and MS Instant Messenger, thus they served as guinea pigs for spreading malicious code. The Internet worm Mandragore used these services to install into the system and copy itself to Windows CurrentUser startup directory as "Gspot.exe" file. Because it was placed in the Startup folder, the worm was automatically run by the operating system on the next Windows startup. Then it ran two background processes, while remaining in Windows memory. The threads displayed two messages:
"I'm Gnutella node, and here is file you are looking for." and "the filename you are looking for" with ".exe" extension, and with worm code in it."
Ramen - 2001
This computer virus managed to affect numerous corporate networks in just a few days. It penetrated NASA, A&M University as well as the Taiwanese hardware vendor Supermicro. Shortly after the launch of the virus, a lot of clones appeared along with a large number of new Linux worms. Ramen was a 300K multi-component worm that included 26 files and is the first known computer virus to infect RedHat Linux systems. You can find more information about
Klez - 2002
The Klez worm-virus managed to cause serious trouble in 2002. Initially detected on October 26 it continued to be considered one the most dangerous malware for the next two years. By the end of 2002, about 60 percent of all infections were the result of the Klez virus. Written in Microsoft Visual C++, it spread through the Internet, being attached to emails.
Slapper – 2002
This Internet worm was able to infect computers that run on Linux. The virus' source was about 68.4KB in size. Not only did it infect computer, it also managed to spread further, being able to act as a backdoor on the infected machine. Thus it made possible for the attacker to run different commands and start Denial-of-Service attacks by taking advantage of a distributed network maintained between the infected computers.
Lentin (aka Yaha) - 2002
Just like Klez this computer virus spread over the Internet being attacked to infected emails. It represents a mass-mailing worm that initially looks for emails in Windows Address Book, MSN, .NET messenger cache folders as well as HTM(L) files. It was able to spread with the help of a 'VALENTIN.SCR' file attached to a message that read:
* Subject 1:
* Melt the Heart of your Valentine with this beautiful Screen saver
* Body 1:
* This e-mail is never sent unsolicited. If you need to unsubscribe, follow the instructions at the bottom of the message.
Slammer - 2003
This Internet worm features in our computer virus list because it is the first fileless worm. Slammer was able to spread by taking advantage of the vulnerability found in the SQL Server. It fully showed the abilities of a flash-worm. The worm caused a denial of service on several Internet hosts and considerably slowed down the overall Internet traffic. The computer virus managed to infect about 75,000 computers in just 10 minutes.
Lovesan – 2003
This computer worm for the first time appeared in August 2003, showing the vulnerability of Windows. Lovesan took advantage of the vulnerability of the operating system in order to replicate itself - a technique similar that used by the Slammer. The virus downloads and the tries to run a file called msblast.exe. In addition, the user receives the following message:
* "I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!!
* billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!!"
Mimail - 2003
This computer worm used the newest vulnerability in Internet Explorer in order to activate itself. It is worth mentioning that the vulnerability made it possible for the worm to extract the binary code from HTML files and the execute it. For the first time Minmail was used in Russia.
Zotob - 2005
This computer virus was launched on August 14, 2005. It used the Plug and Play (PnP) vulnerabilities, thus making big problems on the system. When Zotob infects a machine, it slows it down, causing the computer to repeatedly crash and reboot. Infected computers running Windows 2000 were left exposed to additional attacks, while those that run Windows XP only spread the worms.
Strorm - 2007
This computer virus holds a special place in our computer virus list. For the first time Storm was spotted at the beginning of 2007. It hid in email attachments that had the following title line: "230 dead as storm batters Europe." Users that opened the attachment let the virus in and their machines joined an ever-growing botnet. Security experts spread in opinions regarding the number of computers that were infected with this computer virus: some say that the number reached 10 million, while others claim that between a few thousand and about 1 million computers were infected. Computers infected with Storm virus could be used to launch millions of spam emails that would advertise Web links, and if someone clicked those links, they would download the computer virus on their machine. The Storm botnet was able to attack the online operations carried out by security vendors and analysts who tried to investigate the computer virus. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation believes that Storm represents a major treat to increased bank fraud, identity theft, and a number of other cybercrimes.
The Conficker - 2008
This is a computer worm that for the first time was spotted in November 2008. Besides infecting the user's computer, the worm spreads to other machines throughout the network automatically. It managed to affects the computers of the French Navy, UK Ministry of Defense, Sheffield Hospital, German Bundeswehr as well as Norwegian Police. Microsoft decided to give away $250,000 for valuable information that could help capture the developer of Conficker.
W32.Dozer - 2009
Detected this year, the computer worm can load malicious files onto the infected machine. It was developed to delete information on infected computers and prevent them from being rebooted.
Other viruses that appeared during this period of time include:
2000: Dilber,CIH, SK, Bolzano, Jer, Stream, Fable, Pirus, Hybris;
2001: CodeRed, Nimda, Aliz, BadtransII, Magistr, SirCam, California.IBM, Girl Thing;
2002: LFM, Donut, Tanatos (aka Bugbear), Thus, TheSecond, Marker, Flop, Elkern, CIH, FunLove, Spaces;
2003: Ganda, Avron, Sobig, Tanatos.b, I-Worm.Swen, Backdoor.Agobot, Afcore;
2004: Witty worm, Nuclear RAT, Vundo, Bitfrost, Santy, Stratio-Zip, Netsky-D and MyDoom-O;
2005: Samy XSS, Zlob Trojan, Bandook;
2006: OSX/Leap-A, Stration (a.k.a. Warezov);
2008: MacSweeper, Sinowal (a.k.a. Mebroot), The Koobface.
Original resources:
http://www.infoniac.com/
