Computer Virus facts
While investigating facts about Computer Virus Definition and Computer Virus Protection, I found out little known, but curios details like:
In 2005, Sony used music CDs to illegally install a rootkit virus on 22 million computers; and when caught, they released an uninstaller that failed to remove the rootkit, installed further programs and illegally collected user information
how computer virus spread?
There is a "Zip Bomb" called 42.zip that when downloaded is only 42 Kilobytes, but actually contains 4,500,000 Gigabytes uncompressed. The file crashes computers when Anti-Virus software comes across it during a routine scan and tries to open the entire file, using up all the computer's memory.
What computer virus do?
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what computer virus protection is the best. Here are 50 of the best facts about Computer Virus Names and Computer Virus Types I managed to collect.
what computer virus can do?
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In 2010 Mattel launched Computer Engineers Barbie. With the accompanying book we learned that CE Barbie needed the help of two men to code the game she was designing and they also needed to help her after she accidentally infected her and her sister Skipper's computers with a virus.
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Connecticut teacher Julie Amero was convicted of sex offenses after a computer virus caused Porn Pop Ups to be displayed in her classroom. The felony convictions eventually vacated, she was still required to surrender her teaching license.
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The computer virus that infected Iran's nuclear facilities in 2010 was set to blast AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" at full volume at midnight.
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There's a computer virus called the Zipbomb that is 42kb in size but 4.5pb when unpacked, rendering any machine totally useless in the process
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First widely spread computer virus, "Brain" was not malicious. It was made by two brothers from Pakistan, and even included their phone and address in the code so people could let them know they got it.
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There is a silicon valley research center that is building software to run companies. They say future businesses will soon resemble computer viruses.
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The first ever Windows Computer Virus was created by two Pakistani Brothers to fight against software piracy. The virus destroyed memory, slowed the hard drive and hid a short copyright message in the boot sector.
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In 2004, there were three major computer virus authors at "war" with each other. They were the Netsky, Bagle and Mydoom worms. Netsky was most famous for comments within the code insulting the authors of the other viruses and, in some cases, routines that removed versions of the other viruses.
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On 5 May 2000 two young Filipino programmers created the Iloveyou virus that attacked tens of millions of Windows personal computers causing US$5.5–8.7 billion in damages worldwide. Since there were no laws in the Phils. against writing malware at the time the two were released.
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"worst breach of U.S. military computers in history" started when a USB drive with malicious code was left in a parking lot. Somebody plugged it into a sensitive computer to see what the drive contained and it took 14 months to purge the system of the virus.
Computer Virus data charts
For your convenience take a look at Computer Virus figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.
Why computer viruses are dangerous?
You can easily fact check why computer virus is made by examining the linked well-known sources.
Computer viruses were first theorized in the early 1950's. The first virus was actually written in a lab by a researcher in 1971. The first virus ever discovered in the wild was written in 1982 by a 15 year old.
You are much more likely to get a computer virus from a religious website than a porn website. - source
The first major computer virus was made for an Apple computer - source
There are computer viruses that can be transmitted via sound.
An advertising campaign for the 1997 videogame "Virus: The Game" came in the form of an executable file that, once launched, delete every single file and folder in your computer. It turns out to be a joke, as in the end a message is typed on screen: "Thank god this is only a game..." - source
When computer virus starts to impact data it is known as?
A 500KB computer virus called 'Stuxnet'. In 2009 it was used to sabotage the Iranian Nuclear Program , specifically, the centrifuges for separating nuclear material used in the enrichment process of Uranium.
How computer viruses work?
In 2005, Sony used music CDs to illegally install a rootkit virus on 22 million computers; and when caught, they released an uninstaller that failed to remove the rootkit, installed further programs and illegally collected user information
317,000,000 new computer viruses were created in 2015, with 90% of hackers utilizing software dated from 2002.
In 2010, a Japanese man named Masato Nakatsuji was accused of creating a computer virus that replaces all the files on a person's computer with images of squid, octopuses and sea urchins.
One of the early computer viruses struck British Telecom in the 1980s causing its employees' machines to periodically cease their normal tasks and appear to transform themselves into front-loading washers. The virus produced pictures that made the screens look like spinning washtubs.
John Brunner, 1930s British Sci-fi author, is also credited with coining the term "worm" and predicting the emergence of computer viruses.