I love you - a virus of overwhelming love

I love you - a virus that entered the Guinness Book of Records with the status of the most destructive malicious code in the world.

Epidemic

On May 4, 2000, a new virus was released to the network, quickly capturing more than 3 million computers. The speed of the spread of "love fever" beat all records thanks to fan mailing to users' address books.

Thanks to the intriguing title of the letter containing the virus, most computer owners could not resist the temptation to open it, which led to such a catastrophe.

I love you (the virus) was released in the Philippines, so Asia was the first to suffer its devastating effects, followed by Europe and Russia. Reports of infections of whole companies came in huge quantities, and after 3 days the number of damaged computers was estimated at more than 2 million copies.

Spread

The program code was distributed through electronic messages through attachments in a letter with a tempting title I love you.

This virus comes from the Philippines, and initially its creation was attributed to a certain Reonele Ramones. However, during a search in the house of a young man, not a single computer was found. Then, in the program code of the FSB virus, the "signatures" of other students of the computer school in Manila were deciphered, but this time the accusations were not confirmed.

Only a few months later was found the true creator - Onel de Guzman. But ... the legislation of the Philippines did not punish computer hooliganism, so all the requirements to start the proceedings were ignored at that time.

I love you is a virus that copies itself and sends it after the user has performed the attached file to the email addresses found in the victim's contacts.

How the virus works

After the first launch, the "love message" copies itself to the system directories and the OS registry, and then scans the computer for multimedia files. Having found the desired, the virus changes the data expansion, sometimes making them invisible to the user. After that, I love you starts fan mailing to the addressees and downloads a program for stealing passwords, sending information to the e-mail of the code creator.

However, this is the case with the computer virus love letter 2000. Since then, the code has undergone strong modifications, and if earlier its effect harmed only multimedia files, then everything changed in the course of time. New versions of the "love letter" lead to computer failure, removing and changing the system files INI and BAT, responsible for loading the machine.

About precautions

On the Internet, some versions of the virus still walk, but they are less and less, since the Kaspersky Lab has long developed a program capable of recognizing any modification of the "love message". The software checks the script before execution, and if it finds signs of malicious code in it, prevents it from starting.

However, the already active virus I love you (the creator of this muck - Onel de Guzman) can not be stopped - it can only be deleted, losing the infected files. To avoid such consequences (especially for users who do not consider it necessary to protect their PCs), it is better not to download any suspicious attachments, even if they came with a letter from a friend. It is worthwhile once again to clarify with a friend what is in them, and make sure that the e-mail was really sent by a person, and not a malicious program.

Destiny de Guzman

In general, the accusation fell on Onel for his own stupidity: while still at his time as a student, he tried to present as a thesis a virus that steals user passwords and sends them by e-mail to other people. The young man believed that this would benefit the users and reduce their costs on the Web.

The teaching staff, of course, did not approve this step, but de Guzman did not abandon the development of the program. As it was said earlier, the accusation was not possible to hang on the former student - in his favor the imperfect legislation of the Philippines and the lack of evidence played. The young man himself answered questions about the virus very ambiguously. According to his testimony, it turned out that the script was written not by him, but it was he who released the program into the world.

However, in 2010 another version appeared. According to her, I love you - a virus written by classmate de Guzman. He was in love with the girl Onela, and to take revenge, created a malicious script, including in it the development of the student. Then he hacked the mailbox of his lover and sent him a letter with a virus from Onal. Thus, it turns out that the guzman's guilt can only be considered indirect, since he became the distributor of the epidemic as a victim, not a creator.