Throughout history we have seen different types of viruses that have caused real havoc. Some are well known for their infectious power, causing a huge amount of problems. One of the most destructive has been the ILOVEYOU virusalso known as Love Bug or Loveletter, which infected more than 10 million computers in one week.
Currently, antiviruses such as Windows Defender, natively integrated into Microsoft operating systems, protect against different viruses and malware. You should keep in mind that email systems such as Gmail or Outlook include tools that analyze files. But these are recent elements that did not exist more than two decades ago and browsing was very dangerous. In addition, it was common to receive all kinds of spam, absurd chains and documents of all kinds by email. Thanks to all that rampant chaos, the most harmful viruses in history.
How the ILOVEYOU virus worked and what it did
Let’s go back to the early 2000s, a period that was quite turbulent. You will surely remember the so-called “Y2K bug”, which in the end did not cause any problems. Shortly after, the world would face one of the most destructive computer viruses in history.
Its creator was a Filipino computer engineering student named Onel de Guzman. His idea was not to spread the virus massively, but rather an error in the code that caused it to spread in a simple way. There are two reasons that Onel is said to have created this virus. First, he had problems paying for internet access and it was a way to show that it should be a free resource accessible to everyone. In addition, it seems that it was also his final year project.
The ILOVEYOU virus was characterized by being a worm that infected more than 10 million computers worldwide with Windows operating system. The most interesting thing is that the bulk of the infections occurred in just one week. In addition, it is estimated that the damages generated by this malware amounted to no less than 10 billion euros.
It arrived in an email with the subject “ILOVEYOU” (hence the name). Inside the email was an attached file called «LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs». When the user opened the attached file, the worm was released, which executed itself and replicated itself. What it did was send itself to the entire address book in a simple way.
Due to its replication and propagation mechanism, it generates a huge number of problems, such as:
- It generated a huge amount of traffic by replicating itself to the entire address book, which overloaded networks, made access to the Internet difficult and even caused server crashes due to the high traffic.
- Not only did it replicate itself, it had the ability to delete important operating system files, such as desktop background images and other files vital to the proper functioning of the system.
- It overwrote users’ personal files, damaging them and rendering them completely inaccessible.
In the face of all these problems, cybersecurity experts worked against the clock to develop tools that could combat this worm. The media even reported on the problem, stressing that it was important not to open email attachments from unknown users.
The ILOVEYOU virus is considered one of the most destructive viruses in history. It has also been one of the fastest-spreading and most damaging viruses.
But what were the consequences for Onel de Guzman? Well… NONE. The Philippines at the time had no laws against computer crimes, like many other countries. This meant that he could not be prosecuted for his actions. Years later, de Guzman expressed regret for the damage caused and has reiterated that he never intended to cause so much trouble.