List of Worst Computer Viruses – Part 2

Previously we have shared a post that describes the top 5 viruses of all time including Melissa, ILOVEYOU, etc. This post is a continuation of the virus list highlighting a few more viruses that made it big in the news. Here we go!

Zeus

A trojan horse whose main target is Windows PC and traps the victims through downloading or phishing messages. Man-in-the-browser keylogging and form grabbing are the two techniques used by this virus to capture sensitive information of the target such as email and internet banking credentials and use it for executing malicious tasks. It was first detected in the year 2009 and has hit various giants including Bank of America, Oracle, Amazon, etc.

Stuxnet

It is believed that Stuxnet was developed by Israeli Defence force in collaboration with the government of America for the purpose cyberwarfare. This virus is believed to ruin a significant portion of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and was spread with the use of USB drives.

Mydoom

A worm for Windows that is believed to be one of the fastest spreading viruses in history. The text displayed by this virus – “Andy, I’m just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry” reflects that the creator of this virus was paid for developing it. It attacks the victim by appearing as an email transmission error and makes the victim click on the attachment contained in the message. Once done, it sends messages to all the contacts in the user’s address book.

CryptoLocker

CryptoLocker is a ransomware that spreads itself using various techniques such as email messages. Once it enters a computer, it encrypts all the files and folders present on that computer using RSA public key cryptography. After that, it asks for ransom from the user to decrypt data. It is said that as much as $3 millions were paid as ransom by the victims.

Flashback

Though this virus was not that much damaging but came into the news as it was one of the few malware that targeted Mac users. It spreads itself onto Macs with Java enabled and makes use of compromised websites containing Javascript code. As much as 60,0000 Macs are believed to be infected by this malware.