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MyDoom the Greatest Damaging Malicious Program During Past 10-Years

McAfee the security company, which just released a report titled "A Good Decade for Cyber-crime," states that as cyber-crime evolved over the last ten years, the computer worm MyDoom represented the greatest destructive malicious software threat that prevailed over the period Consequently, it's the first exploit on the report's five most-prevalent malware listed.

The worm, after emerging during January 2004, proliferated mainly through e-mail. The objective was basically for dispatching spam as well as executing DDoS assaults. As per one estimate, McAfee says that MyDoom resulted in some $38bn worth of damages.

States the company that because of the huge spam amounts the worm distributed, worldwide Internet access slowed down 10% as also caused a 50% restricted access to certain online sites. Consequently, productivity along with Internet sales was lost worth several billion dollars. Softpedia.com published this on January 26, 2011.

Meanwhile, following MyDoom, the second on the Top 5 Exploits list was "ILOVEYOU" the worm that spread through e-mail after getting launched during 2000. It reportedly, caused losses to government institutions and organizations worth $15bn.

States McAfee that from both ILOVEYOU and MyDoom, it was evident how malware authors designed their wares for drawing attention as also how cyber-criminals just started monetizing their programs during the decade's former years. V3.co.uk reported this on January 26, 2011.

Moreover, ranking No.3 on McAfee's list of malware is Conficker, a worm of 2007 which resulted in damages worth $9.1bn, while hitting the news after security investigators found that there were time-sensitive instructions in some of the worm's variants.

Thereafter, Stuxnet was on No.4 that first emerged in mid-2009. The worm, since its arrival, destructed government systems within USA, India and Indonesia, along with Iran's nuclear facilities.

And finally, Zeus (Zbot) appears on No.5 that since its debut during 2007 has been vigorously circulating.

Furthermore, as per the report's discoveries, during the last five years of the said ten-year period, there was an increase in 'scareware' i.e. fake anti-virus software that pretends to be genuine security programs. Indeed, campaigns involving these malicious products, according to McAfee, prevailed most frequently on the Internet during the said 10-years.

Related article: MyDoom E-mail Virus Turned Five This Year in January

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