Sophos - ‘ILOVEYOU’ Worm Completed Nine Years of Existence

The ILOVEYOU virus (first spotted in the year 2000) completed nine years of its existence on May 4, 2009 after it had spread like wildfire, contaminating a large number of computers around the world, said security experts.

The worm also called 'Love Letter' arrives with e-mail into the user's inbox as it displays the subject line, "ILOVE YOU."

Further, the e-mail carries an attachment, an .exe file, written in visual Basic Script language which, if clicked, causes the virus to make its own copies and send one each to the e-mail addresses on the user' list. It also modifies the user's computer by making numerous harmful changes on it.

Graham Cluley, Senior IT Consultant at Sophos (an online security company), states that although the code pertaining to the Love Bug had nothing special about it, still it propagated wildly. Evidently, the success of the worm relied on exploiting a universal need that of being loved, as reported by Sophos on May 4, 2009.

To back his statement, Cluley used some simple instances. According to one instance, if a user got the e-mail whose sender happened to be a pretty girl in one of his office's department, he would likely to open it since there is no one who doesn't relish being desired. Moreover, even if one who received the malware-ridden e-mail were in a stable, loving and happy relationship, he would still open it simply out of curiosity.

Moreover, for someone who didn't know English, he would also open the file in the attachment since the words "I love you" is probably familiar to everyone.

Since the ILOVEYOU virus particularly needs Microsoft Outlook for its proliferation, it restricts the audience it targets, said security experts.

Because of the nasty ILOVEYOU virus, Microsoft had to do a lot of hard work. Accordingly, in June 2000, Microsoft released a security update for Outlook e-mail that changed the scripting in Outlook and the method of handling attachments. However, even before Microsoft was able to act, the sinister virus had infected numerous PCs worldwide prompting an extensive hunt for its creator, according to the security specialists.

Related article: Spike in Attacks Causes Early Release of Windows Patch

» SPAMfighter News - 5/13/2009