Malware profile by Björn Kimminich
| Virus | Worm | Trojan | Ransomware | Botnet | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ✔️ |
- Year: 1999 [1,2]
- Author: David L. Smith [2]
- Language: Visual Basic [2]
- Infections: >100,000 computers across ~300 organizations [2]
- Damage: $80 million up to $1.1 billion [2]
A virulent and widespread computer virus was found on Friday, March 26, 1999. This virus has spread all over the globe within just hours of the initial discovery, apparently spreading faster than any other virus before.
Melissa works with Microsoft Word 97, Microsoft Word 2000 and Microsoft Outlook 97 or 98 email client. You don't need to have Microsoft Outlook to receive the virus in email, but it will not spread itself further without it.
[...]
The virus spreads by emailing itself automatically from one user to another. When the virus activates it modifies user's documents by inserting comments from the TV series "The Simpsons". Even worse, it can send out confidential information from the computer without users' notice.
[...]
Melissa was initially distributed in an internet discussion group called alt.sex. The virus was sent in a file called LIST.DOC, which contained passwords for X-rated websites.
When users downloaded the file and opened it in Microsoft Word, a macro inside the document executed and emailed the LIST.DOC file to 50 people listed in the user's email alias file ("address book").
The email looked like this:
- From: (name of infected user)
- Subject: Important Message From (name of infected user)
- To: (50 names from alias list)
- Body: Here is that document you asked for ... don't show anyone else ;-)
- Attachment: LIST.DOC
[...]
After sending itself out, the virus continues to infect other Word documents. Eventually, these files can end up being mailed to other users as well. This can be potentially disastrous, as a user might inadvertently send out confidential data to outsiders.
[1]