A wide variety of viruses with different capabilities have existed throughout history. Some have become famous for their virulence, others for certain aspects of it and this one we will talk to you for a certain date. He Melissa virus It was famous, not for causing damage to the systems it infected, but for its appearance shortly before the year 2000.
In case you didn’t know, a few months before the arrival of the year 2000, a sort of collective psychosis was generated due to possible computer and electronic chaos. Many speculated that the computers were not prepared for the date change and that it would create chaos.
The reality is that absolutely nothing happened, it was an unfounded fear that turned into a giant snowball. It was really complicated to get anything serious done, especially at a time when computers weren’t as common as they are today. Note that smartphones, tablets, SmartTVs and many other smart devices did not exist either.
The virus that increased fear before the “Y2K effect”
All 12 bells rang, someone almost rang the cake while eating grapes and nothing else happened as we left the 20th century behind us and entered the 21st century. The planes continued to operate, the traffic lights, the parking meters, the televisions and everything, in general.
A few months earlier, an incident had occurred which, due to the proximity, had increased in many the fear of the so-called “2000 effect“. In March 1999, a computer virus appeared, causing some chaos. We are talking about the Melissa virus, which was spread by email.
The virus in question was developed by David L. Smith and was propagated through Word and Outlook. Due to this characteristic, this computer virus mainly affected Windows users. It should be noted that at that time, Word (and Office) as well as Outlook were exclusive to Microsoft operating systems, not compatible with Apple devices.
Melissa was a virus quite simple, but with a large capacity has reproduce. The user received an infected Word file in their email. When the file was opened, the virus was activated and sent to the first 50 addresses in the user’s contact book.
Since Melissa replicated automatically without the user needing to do anything, it grew quickly. The email subject line was created to be engaging, using the text “Important message from [Nombre]”. The “Name” field has been automatically populated based on the contact name in the email.
What’s interesting is that Melisa did not cause any damage on the affected user’s system. This virus did not delete files or cause damage to hardware, that was not its goal. What it generates is a lot of congestion on email servers due to the volume of emails being sent.
As I sent hundreds of emails, many networks and email services slowed down tremendously. Some systems even crashed due to the avalanche of emails.
David L. Smith was arrested and convicted for the chaos caused by the Melissa virus. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison and a heavy fine for all the damage caused.
The Melissa virus was a positive thing because it helped businesses improve IT security. After that, implement new practices that will prevent system infections via email. Many antiviruses have been updated to detect these threats. It was used to educate users, telling them to be wary of emails from strangers with attachments.
