The most interesting viruses. Ten of the most “funny” Viruses, Trojans and Worms

A few decades ago, computer viruses were more of an urban legend than a real threat, but over the years the situation has changed dramatically. Nowadays, malware (popularly referred to as viruses) poses a major threat to everyone and everything - from governments and large international corporations to small businesses and Internet users.

Created by people ranging from experienced hackers to hobbyists and even children, computer viruses are malicious programs that - when executed - create copies of themselves, embedding themselves in the code of other computer programs, in data files, or in the boot sector of a hard drive.

Viruses often perform certain types of malicious activities on infected hosts: they “eat up” hard disk space, consume other system resources, gain access to confidential information, damage data storage structures, display political or humorous messages on the user’s screen, spam, install their own keyloggers ( programs that record keystrokes on the keyboard) and much more.

There is no need to say that malware is a strong irritant, which, moreover, can lead to very sad consequences. Informed means armed, we thought and compiled for you a list of 25 interesting facts about computer viruses.

There is not a single person in the world who does not risk becoming the target of a virus attack (regardless of how powerful his antivirus is). Therefore, the more you know, the better.

25. The very first computer virus was Creeper, discovered on the ARPANET computer network, the predecessor of the Internet, in the early 1970s. It was an experimental self-moving program written in 1971 by Bob Thomas, an employee of BBN Technologies.

24. There are currently 3 main categories of malware: viruses, worms and Trojan horses. Although their behavior differs from each other, they are all built on the same basic commands and computer logic.

23. The typical malware creator is a male between the ages of 14 and 25. So far, only a few female virus program creators are known.

22. Almost 70% of virus creators work under contract for organized crime groups.

21. The Melissa macrovirus and network worm (March 1999) was so powerful that it forced Microsoft and other large companies to shut down their email systems before it was completely destroyed. The Melissa virus has broken all records for its speed of spread.

20. Before the advent of local computer networks, most viruses spread through various removable media, in particular through floppy disks. With the advent of the first personal computers, most users regularly exchanged information and programs recorded on floppy disks.

19. According to the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report and Consumer Reports, 40% of US households are affected by computer viruses.

18. Amazon.com is the most exploited target for phishing attacks. It is followed by Apple and eBay.

17. The United States has the highest risk of being attacked by computer viruses, followed by Russia.

16. However, writing a computer virus is not considered illegal in the United States. Some other countries are starting to draft cybercrime laws that are stricter than those in the States.

In Germany, for example, the mass sharing of computer viruses for any reason is prohibited, and in Finland, writing malware has recently become illegal.

15. With the constant increase in the number of computer viruses and hackers, new types of computer crimes are emerging. Today, so-called cybercrime carries out a wide range of activities such as cyber terrorism, cyber extortion and cyber warfare.

14. Nowadays, more than 6,000 new computer viruses are created and launched every month.

13. The most destructive computer virus of all time was the MyDoom email worm. It caused $38 billion in damage. It spread quickly, infecting open networks and every computer with access to them. In 2004, this virus infected 25% of all emails.

12. Becoming a member of the famous international hacker network Anonymous is actually very easy. For this reason, only a few of them are elite hackers who are able to exploit security vulnerabilities in computer systems and write virus programs.

11. You will not infect your computer with a virus just by reading an email. The malware is activated only when you open a link or an infected email attachment.

10. It is estimated that up to 90% of emails contain malware.

9. By 1990, about 50 computer viruses were known. In the late 1990s, the number of viruses increased sharply to 48,000.

8. Some virus authors may actually be children who create them just to test their programming skills.

7. About 32% of all computers in the world (that is, almost every third computer) are infected with some kind of malware.

6. To discover its vulnerabilities, Facebook pays $500 to anyone who can hack the system.

5. Despite the best efforts of researchers and developers in the field of computer security, there is currently no antivirus program that can detect all computer viruses.

4. Viruses can be written in a variety of programming languages, including assembly language, scripting languages (such as Visual Basic or Perl), Java, and macro programming languages (such as VBA).

3. One of the three main types of malware, Trojan horse, gets its name from the ancient Greek story of a wooden horse that was used to help Greek troops sneak into Troy.

2. Created by Filipino programmers Reonel Ramones and Onel de Guzman in 2000, the computer virus known as ILOVEYOU or LoveLetter became the most destructive virus in the world (having entered the Guinness Book of Records). It is estimated that the virus infected more than 3 million computers around the world.

1. Modern computer viruses cause billions of dollars in economic damage every year by causing system crashes, consuming computer system resources, corrupting data, increasing computer maintenance costs, and so on.

There is an opinion that animals, plants and humans predominate in numbers on planet Earth. But this is actually not the case. There are countless microorganisms (microbes) in the world. And viruses are among the most dangerous. They can cause various diseases in humans and animals. Below is a list of the ten most dangerous viruses for humans.

10. Hantaviruses

Hantaviruses are a genus of viruses that are transmitted to humans through contact with rodents or their waste products. Hantaviruses cause various diseases belonging to such groups of diseases as “hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome” (mortality on average 12%) and “hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome” (mortality up to 36%). The first major outbreak of disease caused by hantaviruses, known as Korean hemorrhagic fever, occurred during the Korean War (1950-1953). Then more than 3,000 American and Korean soldiers felt the effects of a then unknown virus that caused internal bleeding and impaired kidney function. Interestingly, it is this virus that is considered the likely cause of the epidemic in the 16th century that exterminated the Aztec people.

9. Influenza virus

The influenza virus is a virus that causes an acute infectious disease of the respiratory tract in humans. Currently, there are more than 2 thousand of its variants, classified into three serotypes A, B, C. The group of viruses from serotype A, divided into strains (H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, etc.) is the most dangerous for humans and can lead to epidemics and pandemics. Every year, between 250 and 500 thousand people worldwide die from seasonal influenza epidemics (most of them children under 2 years of age and elderly people over 65 years of age).

8. Marburg virus

Marburg virus is a dangerous human virus first described in 1967 during small outbreaks in the German cities of Marburg and Frankfurt. In humans, it causes Marburg hemorrhagic fever (mortality rate 23-50%), which is transmitted through blood, feces, saliva and vomit. The natural reservoir for this virus is sick people, probably rodents and some species of monkeys. Symptoms in the early stages include fever, headache and muscle pain. In the later stages - jaundice, pancreatitis, weight loss, delirium and neuropsychiatric symptoms, bleeding, hypovolemic shock and multiple organ failure, most often the liver. Marburg fever is one of the top ten deadly diseases transmitted from animals.

7. Rotavirus

The sixth most dangerous human virus is Rotavirus, a group of viruses that are the most common cause of acute diarrhea in infants and young children. Transmitted by the fecal-oral route. The disease is usually easy to treat, but kills more than 450,000 children under five worldwide each year, most of whom live in underdeveloped countries.

6. Ebola virus

Ebola virus is a genus of virus that causes Ebola hemorrhagic fever. It was first discovered in 1976 during an outbreak of the disease in the Ebola River basin (hence the name of the virus) in Zaire, DR Congo. It is transmitted through direct contact with the blood, secretions, other fluids and organs of an infected person. Ebola fever is characterized by a sudden increase in body temperature, severe general weakness, muscle pain, headaches, and sore throat. Often accompanied by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, impaired renal and liver function, and in some cases internal and external bleeding. According to the US Centers for Disease Control, in 2015, 30,939 people were infected with Ebola, of whom 12,910 (42%) died.

5. Dengue virus

Dengue virus is one of the most dangerous viruses for humans, causing dengue fever in severe cases, which has a mortality rate of about 50%. The disease is characterized by fever, intoxication, myalgia, arthralgia, rash and swollen lymph nodes. It is found mainly in the countries of South and Southeast Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Caribbean, where about 50 million people are infected annually. The carriers of the virus are sick people, monkeys, mosquitoes and bats.

4. Smallpox virus

Smallpox virus is a complex virus, the causative agent of a highly contagious disease of the same name that affects only humans. This is one of the oldest diseases, the symptoms of which are chills, pain in the sacrum and lower back, rapid increase in body temperature, dizziness, headache, vomiting. On the second day, a rash appears, which eventually turns into purulent blisters. In the 20th century, this virus claimed the lives of 300-500 million people. About US$298 million was spent on the smallpox campaign from 1967 to 1979 (equivalent to US$1.2 billion in 2010). Fortunately, the last known case of infection was reported on October 26, 1977 in the Somali city of Marka.

3. Rabies virus

The rabies virus is a dangerous virus that causes rabies in humans and warm-blooded animals, which causes specific damage to the central nervous system. This disease is transmitted through saliva from the bite of an infected animal. Accompanied by an increase in temperature to 37.2-37.3, poor sleep, patients become aggressive, violent, hallucinations, delirium, a feeling of fear appear, soon paralysis of the eye muscles, lower extremities, paralytic respiratory disorders and death occurs. The first signs of the disease appear late, when destructive processes have already occurred in the brain (swelling, hemorrhage, degradation of nerve cells), which makes treatment almost impossible. To date, only three cases of human recovery without vaccination have been recorded; all others ended in death.

2. Lassa Virus

Lassa virus is a deadly virus that is the causative agent of Lassa fever in humans and primates. The disease was first discovered in 1969 in the Nigerian city of Lassa. It is characterized by a severe course, damage to the respiratory system, kidneys, central nervous system, myocarditis and hemorrhagic syndrome. It is found mainly in West African countries, especially in Sierra Leone, the Republic of Guinea, Nigeria and Liberia, where the annual incidence ranges from 300,000 to 500,000 cases, of which 5 thousand lead to the death of the patient. The natural reservoir of Lassa fever is polymammated rats.

1. AIDS virus

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the most dangerous human virus, the causative agent of HIV infection/AIDS, which is transmitted through direct contact of mucous membranes or blood with bodily fluid of the patient. During HIV infection, the same person develops new strains (varieties) of the virus, which are mutants, completely different in reproduction speed, capable of initiating and killing certain types of cells. Without medical intervention, the average life expectancy of a person infected with the immunodeficiency virus is 9-11 years. According to 2011 data, 60 million people worldwide have become infected with HIV, of which 25 million have died, and 35 million continue to live with the virus.

But sometimes they are also very cute and even funny. In this article we decided to write about the funniest computer viruses.

Worm USBToy by far the most religious virus. The only thing it does is show the following quote from the Bible every time the system boots:

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was empty and chaotic, and darkness was over the abyss, and the spirit of God hovered over the waters. And God said: Let there be light. And there was light. History must be remembered!

At one time, a virus was roaming the Internet HPS, designed for the Windows98 operating system. This virus, when it entered a computer, could not significantly harm it. He was just playing around, and only on Saturdays, creating a mirror image of the computer screen.

The grossest, without a doubt, is the worm Cisum.A This virus terminates the processes of antivirus programs and other security solutions, leaving the computer vulnerable to attacks by other viruses or hackers, while leaving the user with a message: "YOU'RE AN IDIOT". Not only does it appear in a small window on the screen, but it also plays from your computer speakers every five seconds.

At a time when Windows was only in the development stage, and DOS was installed everywhere on users’ personal computers, there was a cute computer virus that was not even really a virus, but a kind of fun that shook the nerves of the computer owner. The virus responded to all commands with one phrase: “Give me some!” The virus blocked the system until the user typed this "I smell" on keyboard.

“Paranoia” is another joke virus. This virus removes all shortcuts from the desktop, leaving only two - “My Computer” and “Trash”. However, none of them start, and the “Start” button, when you try to press it, runs away from the cursor. If the user calls up the context menu, he will be quite surprised by the commands placed in it. “Paranoia” will suggest formatting the hard drive or reinstalling the system.

And finally, the mysterious story of the disappearance of the Ukrainian budget 2003. According to the chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, Vladimir Lytvyn, the data necessary to adopt the budget for 2003 was eaten by a computer virus. He stated this on the air of the “Same Toy” program:

“...As the chairman of the committee told me, somewhere in the first hour or two in the morning, some kind of virus was introduced into the computer, and the information was erased. And they worked until the morning to restore this information.”

Around the same time, similar viral incidents occurred in several large companies that refused to show financial statements. “The virus destroyed everything!”, - they said in these companies.

It is still unknown whether this evil virus, devouring financial statements, really existed or whether it was such a cunning move not to show anything due to an unexpected and irretrievable loss.

But do not forget that there are only a few funny and harmless viruses, while there are hundreds of thousands that can harm a computer and the user. Therefore, you need to secure your PC in time. At the moment, the most reliable protection against computer threats is an antivirus program. If you still don’t know why you need an antivirus, then we recommend reading about this topic.

Hantaviruses are a genus of viruses that are transmitted to humans through contact with rodents or their waste products. Hantaviruses cause various diseases belonging to such groups of diseases as “hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome” (mortality on average 12%) and “hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome” (mortality up to 36%). The first major outbreak of disease caused by hantaviruses, known as Korean hemorrhagic fever, occurred during the Korean War (1950–1953). Then more than 3,000 American and Korean soldiers felt the effects of a then unknown virus that caused internal bleeding and impaired kidney function. Interestingly, it is this virus that is considered the likely cause of the epidemic in the 16th century that exterminated the Aztec people.

Influenza virus is a virus that causes an acute infectious disease of the respiratory tract in humans. Currently, there are more than 2 thousand of its variants, classified into three serotypes A, B, C. The group of viruses from serotype A, divided into strains (H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, etc.) is the most dangerous for humans and can lead to epidemics and pandemics. Every year, between 250 and 500 thousand people worldwide die from seasonal influenza epidemics (most of them children under 2 years of age and elderly people over 65 years of age).

Sixth on the list of the most dangerous human viruses is Rotavirus, a group of viruses that are the most common cause of acute diarrhea in infants and young children. Transmitted by the fecal-oral route. The disease is usually easy to treat, but kills more than 450,000 children under five worldwide each year, most of whom live in underdeveloped countries.

Dengue virus is one of the most dangerous biological viruses for humans, causing dengue fever, in severe cases, which has a mortality rate of about 50%. The disease is characterized by fever, intoxication, myalgia, arthralgia, rash and swollen lymph nodes. It is found mainly in the countries of South and Southeast Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Caribbean, where about 50 million people are infected annually. The carriers of the virus are sick people, monkeys, mosquitoes and bats.

Smallpox virus is a complex virus, the causative agent of a highly contagious disease of the same name that affects only humans. This is one of the oldest diseases, the symptoms of which are chills, pain in the sacrum and lower back, rapid increase in body temperature, dizziness, headache, vomiting. On the second day, a rash appears, which eventually turns into purulent blisters. In the 20th century, this virus claimed the lives of 300–500 million people. About US$298 million was spent on the smallpox campaign from 1967 to 1979 (equivalent to US$1.2 billion in 2010). Fortunately, the last known case of infection was reported on October 26, 1977 in the Somali city of Marka.

The rabies virus is a dangerous virus that causes rabies in humans and warm-blooded animals, which causes specific damage to the central nervous system. This disease is transmitted through saliva from the bite of an infected animal. Accompanied by an increase in temperature to 37.2–37.3, poor sleep, patients become aggressive, violent, hallucinations, delirium, a feeling of fear appear, soon paralysis of the eye muscles, lower extremities, paralytic respiratory disorders and death occurs. The first signs of the disease appear late, when destructive processes have already occurred in the brain (swelling, hemorrhage, degradation of nerve cells), which makes treatment almost impossible. To date, only three cases of human recovery without vaccination have been recorded; all others ended in death.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the most dangerous human virus, the causative agent of HIV infection/AIDS, which is transmitted through direct contact of mucous membranes or blood with bodily fluid of the patient. During HIV infection, the same person develops new strains (varieties) of the virus, which are mutants, completely different in reproduction speed, capable of initiating and killing certain types of cells. Without medical intervention, the average life expectancy of a person infected with the immunodeficiency virus is 9–11 years. According to 2011 data, 60 million people have become infected with HIV throughout the world, of which 25 million have died, and 35 million continue to live with the virus.