Question

Use a search engine to find the names of five different cyber viruses. Write a short paragraph on each

Answer 1

1. The Morris worm

In 1998 Robert Morris, a university student, unleashed a worm which affected 10 per cent of all the computers connected to the internet (at the time the net was estimated to consist of 60,000 computers), slowing them down to a halt.

2. Code Red

Code Red first surfaced on 2001 and was discovered by two eEye Digital Security employees. The worm targeted computers with Microsoft IIS web server installed, exploiting a buffer overflow problem in the system. It leaves very little trace on the hard disk as it is able to run entirely on memory, with a size of 3,569 bytes. Once infected, it will proceed to make a hundred copies of itself but due to a bug in the programming, it will duplicate even more and ends up eating a lot of the systems resources.

3. Slammer

While most of the malware on this list strictly hit computers, Slammer was created with broader ambitions. Slammer is the kind of virus that makes it into films, as only a few minutes after infecting its first victim, it was doubling itself every few seconds. 15 minutes in and Slammer had infected half of the servers that essentially ran the internet.

4. Conficker

Conficker is a worm of unknown authorship for Windows that made its first appearance in 2008.It infects computers using flaws in the OS to create a botnet. The malware was able to infect more than 9 millions computers all around the world, affecting governments, businesses and individuals. It was one of the largest known worm infections to ever surface causing an estimate damage of $9 billion.

5. WANNACRY

Wanna Cry is a big one that global targeting Windows operating systems and demanding Bitcoin ransom payments. Some viruses are sneaky and too advanced to catch early, but WannaCry is not one of them. A fix is available but users have to keep their systems up-to-date which is the best way to stay ahead of most infections.