Twenty years on, the ILOVEYOU virus remains one of the farthest reaching ever. Tens of millions of computers around the world were affected. The fight to contain the malware and track down its author was front page news globally, waking up a largely complacent public to the dangers posed by malicious cyber actors.
What is the ILOVEYOU virus and how dangerous is it?
Twenty years on, the ILOVEYOU virus remains one of the farthest reaching ever. Tens of millions of computers around the world were affected. The fight to contain the malware and track down its author was front page news globally, waking up a largely complacent public to the dangers posed by malicious cyber actors.
How many computers have been affected by the ILOVEYOU virus?
It attacked more than 55 million Windows personal computers on and after May 5th, 2000. ILOVEYOU computer virus started spreading as an email with the subject “ILOVEYOU”, the attachment “LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.vbs” and the message “kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me”.
How much did the ILOVEYOU virus cost the world?
The infection of ILOVEYOU was later estimated to have caused US$10 billion financial loss worldwide and to cost US$ 10 – 15 million to remove the virus. Over 10 days, more than 55 million infections had been reported. It is estimated that 10% of Internet-connected computers in the world had been affected.
What was the ILOVEYOU virus and how did it spread?
A screenshot showing a copy of the ILOVEYOU virus email which spread around the world in May 2000. Office email servers were soon clogged as thousands of love letters went back and forth, disseminating the virus to more people. It turned out to be much worse than just a self-propelling chain letter.
How long did the ILOVEYOU virus last?
In fact, this is exactly what happened on May 4, 2000. In just about 10 days, ILOVEYOU reached an estimated 45 million users and caused about $10 billion in damages.
How did they stop the ILOVEYOU virus?
They were avoided thanks to the diligent efforts of programmers around the world working together. It was a sign of the new connectivity that the internet, still in its relative infancy, was fostering. That connectivity cut both ways, however, as Gazeley was reminded of that afternoon.
Is the ILOVEYOU virus real?
On May 4, 2000, users of Windows computers began receiving an email with a malicious attachment. Within just ten days, some fifty million infections were reported, and it has been estimated that as many as 10% of the internet-connected computers in the world ultimately caught the ILOVEYOU virus.
Where is the creator of ILOVEYOU virus?
Investigators traced the virus to an email address registered to an apartment in Manila, capital of the Philippines. The occupant's brother was Onel de Guzman, a computer science student at the city's AMA Computer College.
What is the first virus?
Tobacco plants are damaged sometimes with mosaic-like patterns on the leaves. These patterns are caused by the tobacco mosaic virus, which at the end of the 19th century became the first virus ever discovered.
What is the Zeus virus?
The Zeus Trojan is an insidious malware kit commonly used to steal banking information. With millions of Windows computers infected, it's one of the most widespread and successful strains of malware in the history of the internet.
What does ILOVEYOU virus do?
ILOVEYOU sends the message once to each recipient. After a message has been sent, it adds a marker to the registry and does not mass mail itself any more. The virus then searches for certain file types on all folders on all local and remote drives and overwrites them with its own code.
What damage did the ILOVEYOU virus do?
He was accused of authoring and releasing the first truly global computer virus that had disrupted the operations of businesses and government agencies the world over, from Ford (F) and Merrill Lynch to the Pentagon and the British Parliament, and was on track to cause a estimated $10 billion in damages — all in the ...
How much did the ILOVEYOU virus cost?
The outbreak was later estimated to have caused US$5.5–8.7 billion in damages worldwide, and estimated to cost US$10–15 billion to remove the worm. Within ten days, over fifty million infections had been reported, and it is estimated that 10% of Internet-connected computers in the world had been affected.
Who is the person behind ILOVEYOU virus?
For two decades, Onel de Guzman has been suspected of unleashing the groundbreaking virus. But he's never confessed to anything—until now. This story is adapted from Crime Dot Com: From Viruses to Vote Rigging, How Hacking Went Global, by Geoff White.
What happened to Onel de Guzman now?
Now 44 years old, Onel de Guzman runs a small phone repair booth in a shopping mall in Manilla. He never went back to college.
Who is the person behind ILOVEYOU virus?
Onel de GuzmanOnel de Guzman, a then-24-year-old resident of Manila, Philippines, created the malware.
How much damage did the ILOVEYOU virus cause?
Last week's "ILOVEYOU" virus and its numerous variants have cost businesses, governments and other technology users a total of $6.7 billion in damages so far, according to an estimate released today by Computer Economics Inc.
How did the ILOVEYOU virus work?
ILOVEYOU sends the message once to each recipient. After a message has been sent, it adds a marker to the registry and does not mass mail itself any more. The virus then searches for certain file types on all folders on all local and remote drives and overwrites them with its own code.
How did the ILOVEYOU virus spread worldwide?
The virus was spread through an E-mail attachment designed to propagate the virus message automatically throughout an agency's Global Email Address Directory. Unsuspecting users who opened the attachment automatically caused the virus to start spreading throughout their agencies' e-mail system.
How Was the ILOVEYOU Virus Stopped?
Some security companies have contributed to removing the ILOVEYOU trojan from the Internet including Symantec. Most importantly, many corporations...
Does the ILOVEYOU Virus Still Exist?
I believe there are still copies of the ILOVEYOU Virus source code somewhere. Yet, the virus isn’t online for many years. However, there may be sim...
What Happened to the Creator of the ILOVEYOU Virus?
ILOVEYOU virus designer Onel de Guzan returned to computer work but didn’t go back to college after a period of lying low. Recently in 2020, he was...
What is the name of the email worm named after a Florida topless dancer?
Destructive viruses timeline. Michelangelo virus predicted to take down millions of machines, but in the end only a handful are affected. Melissa, an email worm named after a Florida topless dancer, spreads to thousands of computers worldwide.
How much damage did the Love Bug do?
The love bug and its variants would cause some $10 billion of damage, the FBI later estimated, before updates to anti-virus software and email clients reined them in. To this day, ILOVEYOU remains one of the farthest reaching viruses, striking millions of machines in countries across the world.
How old was De Guzman when he was questioned?
Seated to his right, de Guzman's lawyer Rolando Quimbo had to lean in close to hear the 23-year-old 's mumbled response, which he then repeated in English for the waiting press.
Where was Graham Cluley when the virus hit?
Graham Cluley was on stage at a security conference in Stockholm, Sweden, when the virus hit Europe. He had just finished describing an unrelated virus which targeted a now-defunct operating system, hijacking users' accounts to broadcast messages to their coworkers, including "Friday I'm in LOVE.".
What does Anna Kournikova worm promise?
Anna Kournikova worm uses promise of photos of the tennis star to inflict repeat of ILOVEYOU chaos.
What is the purpose of Cryptolocker?
Hackers use CryptoLocker virus to seize computers and force people to pay to restore access in new "ransomware" attack.
Where did Cluley fly to?
Cluley raced to the airport to catch a flight to London, and even traded phone batteries with a generous taxi driver as the constant stream of messages drained his Nokia cellphone of power. When he landed in the United Kingdom, a car was waiting to whisk him to a TV studio to discuss what had by now become one of the biggest tech stories in the world.
What Language Was the ILOVEYOU Worm Written In?
The attached ILOVEYOU file was written in Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting (VBS) that runs in Outlook and was enabled by default. The script adds Windows Registry data for automatic startup on system boot.
How to Avoid Data Loss Caused by ILOVEYOU or Similar Virus?
Though it has been over 20 years since the ILOVEYOU virus infection, it is still necessary to know how to protect yourself from losing data once been attacked by similar viruses in the future. Then, what are the suggestions?
Why did Onel de Guzman remove the geographic restriction?
Later, Onel de Guzman removed the geographic restriction out of curiosity, which enabled the malware to spread worldwide. However, de Guzman didn’t mean that. Onel de Guzman justified his behavior on his belief that Internet access is a human right and he wasn’t actually stealing.
Why did the CIA shut down the mail?
The cited ILOVEYOU virus damage was mostly the time and effort paid to handle infection and recover files from backups. In order to protect themselves and stop the ILOVEYOU virus, the British Parliament, The Pentagon, CIA, and most other large companies decided to completely shut down their mail systems.
How many periods are in a virus file?
Windows would parse file names from right to left, stop at the first period character, and show only those elements to the left of this. The virus file, having two periods in its name, could display the inner fake txt file extension. Real txt files are considered to be secure for they can’t run executable code.
What is the Love Letter for You virus?
ILOVEYOU virus, also called Love Letter for you or Love Bug, is a computer worm. It attacked more than 55 million Windows personal computers on and after May 5th, 2000. ILOVEYOU computer virus started spreading as an email with the subject “ILOVEYOU”, the attachment “LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.vbs” and the message “kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me”.
How does Barok virus propagate?
The virus propagates itself by sending a copy of the payload to all addresses in the Windows Address Book used by Microsoft Outlook. It also downloads the Barok trojan renamed for the occasion as “WIN-BUGSFIX.EXE”.
What is the ILOVEYOU virus?
The ILOVEYOU virus comes in an email with "ILOVEYOU" in the subject line and contains an attachment that, when opened, results in the message being re-sent to everyone in the recipient's Microsoft Outlook address book. Perhaps more seriously, it results in the loss of every JPEG, MP3 and certain other files on all recipients' hard disks.
How does the ILOVEYOU virus work and spread?
The attachment in the ILOVEYOU virus is a VBScript program that recipients at the time mistook for a simple text file because the extension .vbs was hidden from view on Windows machines. When the file is opened, it finds the recipient's Outlook address book and re-sends the note to everyone in it.
How did affected companies react to ILOVEYOU?
To ward off ILOVEYOU, one of the first things affected companies did at the time was to screen out emails with "ILOVEYOU" in the subject line. However, this strategy was only moderately successful.
How to stay safe from ILOVEYOU and similar attacks
Since ILOVEYOU, thousands of other viruses and worms have impacted organizations all over the world. The problem is not going away, so companies should take proactive steps to protect themselves.
Long-term impact of ILOVEYOU virus
ILOVEYOU was one of the first real-world examples of the use of social engineering to perpetrate a cybercrime. In the 20+ years since ILOVEYOU was created and unleashed, social engineering has become a common attack vector, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic.
How many viruses does Star Labs stop?
Star Labs, which became MessageLabs soon after, now stops more than one million viruses every day. Cyber crime is big business and is done for financial gain rather than kicks of bragging rights. "The LoveBug showed the shape of things to come," said Mr Fletcher.
How old was Onel De Guzman when he was hit?
It all started in the Philippines many hours earlier when 24-year-old Onel De Guzman released a virus that he had proposed creating as part of his undergraduate thesis.
Why were viruses written by teenagers?
Prior to its release, viruses were written by teenagers for kicks. Similarly spam senders were few and far between because they had to pay for their bandwidth and hosting.
Who remembers coming off a conference call with other security firms and the various national Computer Emergency Response Teams?
Mr Hypponen remembers coming off a conference call with other security firms and the various national Computer Emergency Response Teams to see that lots of other people had called.
Was De Guzman charged with a crime?
Despite being traced via an alias he left in the virus, Mr De Guzman was never charged with a crime. At the time he released the malware, the Philippines had no laws criminalising malicious use of computers.
Who is Mikko Hypponen?
Mikko Hypponen, head of research at F-Secure, remembers the day well.
Who is Simon Heron?
Simon Heron, manager of security firm Network Box, remembers he was at a meeting on the day to discuss security with a client.
Is The Iloveyou Virus A Trojan Horse?
In the “I Love You” e-mail virus, which shut down e-mail servers around the world on Thursday, a Trojan Horse program sends the cached Windows passwords of naive recipients to an e-mail account in the Philippines, where they open the virus-laden attachment.
Is A Trojan Horse Good Or Bad?
The term “Trojan horse” refers to a type of malicious software that infects computers and mobile devices. Trojan horses are usually disguised as benign or useful software that you download from the Internet, but they actually contain malicious code that can harm you.
Does The Trojan Horse Still Exist?
During the Trojan War, the Greeks used the Trojan Horse as a wooden horse to enter Troy and win the war. Homer’s Iliad does not contain a Trojan Horse, and the poem ends before the war ends. After the Greeks entered Troy, the war ended.
Are Trojan Viruses Still A Thing?
Most users didn’t even realize they had installed a virus on their computer until they came alive and wreaked havoc on their computers. Viruses are no longer truly present in the modern world.
What Type Of Malware Is Iloveyou?
VBScript worm, VBS/LoveLetter, is a program that uses the VBS format. Outlook is an application that allows it to spread through email as a chain letter. As well as being an overwriting VBS virus, ILOVEYOU also spreads itself through the mIRC (Internet Relay Chat) client.
Where Is Onel De Guzman Today?
” Now 44, Onel de Guzman runs a small phone repair business in a shopping mall in Manilla, where he lives with his wife and two children. His education ended when he left college.
