http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/050410-lovebug-worm-anniversary.html By Tim Greene Network World May 04, 2010 When the LoveBug worm hit 10 years ago, it was a different time when people believed admirers were really reaching out to say "I love you", personal firewalls were turned off by default and executable attachments weren't blocked at e-mail gateways. Those circumstances allowed the Love Letter worm -- the first Visual Basic script worm -- to infect more than 50 million computers worldwide within a week, causing estimated $5 billion to $8 billion in damages, bringing down networks by maxing out their ability to fire off e-mails and causing painstaking disinfection of affected machines. At the time, unleashing the worm wasn't even a crime in the Philippines, where Reomel Ramones and Onel de Guzman created and then sent it off. ILOVEYOU wasn't the first mass-mailing worm, but it was unique in that it knew no limits, says Roger Thompson, chief research officer for security vendor AVG. Melissa, the first such malicious attachment, sent copies of itself to just the first 50 entries in e-mail address books. ILOVEYOU sent it to all of them and kept on sending. "It didn't know when to shut up," Thompson says. [...] _______________________________________________ Best Selling Security Books and More! Shop InfoSec News http://www.shopinfosecnews.org/Received on Tue May 04 2010 - 22:22:42 PDT
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