Two of the most effective viruses to do this were the
Melissa virus 1999 and the ILOVEYOU virus a year later.
The
Melissa virus swamped corporate networks with a tidal wave of e-mail messages in March 1999.
(6) See, e.g., Chris Nuttall,
Melissa Virus Goes Global, BBC NEWS, Mar.
When I was at United States Air Forces in Europe in the late '90s--do you remember the
Melissa virus and the Love Bug?
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.
As said by Richard Smith, who helped the FBI corral the creator of the
Melissa virus in 1999, "Some people would turn in their mother for that."
(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.)
The center has played a key role in coordinating responses to major security events such as the Code Red worm,
Melissa virus, and most recently the MS Blaster worm and the Sobig.F virus.
When some of the servers were hit by the
Melissa virus, Timmons says many documents, such as spreadsheets, had bogus changes.
For example, and 'FriendGreetings' evolves from spam to Internet worm, using exactly the same technical mass mailing method as the
Melissa virus.
Sales increased in 1999 when the
Melissa virus caused $80m in damage.
Others that have gained prominence include the
Melissa virus, the Anna Kournikova virus and the Love Bug, which MessageLabs was the first to detect and stop in May last year.