There are new viruses, worms and trojans coming out all the time. The volume of new virus activity is actually pretty staggering. Some worms and viruses end up becoming more famous than others due to the speed of spread or the type of damage it causes. This, of course, is what the creator of the virus wanted – media coverage and notoriety. The larger majority of viruses do not end up creating much of a ripple. Others can create tidal waves.

Let us look at a few examples of computer virus and/or worm:

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1. Nyxem: This worm was discovered in the beginning of 2006. The worm spread itself by using mass email. It was designed to activate on the 3rd of each month, about 30 minutes after the computer starts up. The worm was designed to do many things. For example, it would try to disable security software installed to the computer as well as attempt to destroy certain kinds of Microsoft Office files. When executed, it would attach itself to rundell16.exe, scanregw.exe, update.exe and winzip.exe. The most usual type of email to contain this worm are those advertising Viagra. For more information, read about W32.Blackmal.E@mm at Symantec.
2. Samy (XSS): This was a cross-site scripting virus designed to use Myspace.com to spread. When infected, the virus would display the words “but most of all, Samy is my hero” on the Myspace profile of the infected person. When a user viewed that profile, they would have the same thing planted onto their own Myspace profile. The virus was relatively harmless, only designed to automatically make a friend request to the author of the virus. By attaching itself to Myspace, one of the most popular sites on the entire internet, Samy was able to spread to over one million users in less than 24 hours. Myspace sued the creator of the virus and he was ultimately sentenced to three years probation.
3. Sasser: Sasser was a computer worm sometimes referred to as “the Big One”. It spread itself by finding a vulnerable network port on computers powered by Windows XP, Windows 2000 and some versions of Windows 98. The worm would result in random crashes to Windows. Due to the popularity of Windows itself, the worm was able to spread quickly and have many side effects. It managed to cause Delta Air Lines to cancel several transAtlantic flights because their computers were down. The AFP news agency had it’s satellite communications down for several hours.
4. Mydoom: This was another famous worm that spread quickly by way of mass email over computers powered by Windows. The worm spread by way of emails that looked to be error emails, such as “Mail Delivery System”, “Test”, or “Mail Transaction Failed”. The email had an attachment that, if executed, would infect the PC with the worm. The worm would then scan for email addresses locally on the infected computer (such as in the Address book) and email everybody in it. Once infected, the PC would serve as a zombie for spammers, allowing back door remote control of the computer via port 3127. A second version of the worm would block internet access to Microsoft as well as the sites of many anti-virus software, thereby blocking access to updated virus definitions and updates to Windows. You can get more information at Viruslist.com.
5. SoBig.F: SoBig was a very well known computer worm that was also a Trojan. It spread by way of e-mail yet again, however it was also a Trojan because the email was designed to look like something benign. The email would typically have a subject line like “Re: Approved”, “Re: Thank you!” or “Re: Your application”. These subject lines were designed to trick the user into thinking it was a legitimate email and even a reply from an email they had sent earlier. The email would contain the text “see the attached for details” and would contain an attachment, usually with a PIF file extension. Opening the attachment would infect the PC. The worm infected internet-enabled, Windows-powered computers.
6. Blaster: This worm infected Windows powered PCs as well and was designed to launch a denial of service attack on windowsupdate.com. A denial of service (DoS) attack is when a particular server is so overloaded with incoming requests that it cannot handle legitimate requests. So, the idea was to have infected computers simultaneously hammer the Windows Update site such that the service went offline. The worm was fairly easily stopped and the rapid spread of the worm was eventually mitigated. The worm was also known as Lovsan because inside the source code of the virus was the line “I just want to say I love you San”. Notably, though, there was another line which read “Billy Gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!!”.

Those viruses that make the most press are often worms due to the volatility with which they can spread. Also, Microsoft Windows often makes the biggest target.

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