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Melissa virus

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Melissa virus
A Word macro virus that was unleashed in the spring of 1999. It sent an e-mail message with a list of pornographic Web sites to the first 50 names in the user's Microsoft Outlook address book. The subject field contained the phrase "An important message from" followed by the name of the user so that recipients thought it was coming from a known source. After the porn transmission, the virus attached itself to your system so that future Word documents you created and attached via e-mail were sent to the first 50 addresses in your recipients' address book if they used Microsoft Outlook as the mail client.
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All I'd come up with was an anecdote about when the Melissa virus was rife and I didn't answer any emails from my sister for six weeks because her name is Melissa.
Last word by guardian.co.uk / guardian.co.uk
Back in March 1999, the Melissa virus was so powerful that it forced Microsoft and a number of other very large companies to completely turn off their e-mail systems until the virus could be contained.
How computer viruses work by Brain, Marshall / Database and Network Journal
For CERT, an "incident" can range from an attack on a single computer to a virus affecting hundreds of thousands of sites; so, for example, the Melissa virus counts as a single incident.
No relief from cyberattacks by Piazza, Peter / Security Management
 
 
 
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