Besides sheer quantity, viruses, which were originally used every bit academic proof of concepts, rapidly turned into geek pranks, thence evolved into cybercriminal tools. By 2005, the virus scene had been monetized, together with virtually all viruses were developed amongst the sole role of making coin via to a greater extent than or less complex line of piece of job organisation models.
In the next story, FortiGuard Labs looks at the most pregnant figurer viruses over the terminal forty years together with explains their historical significance.
1971: Creeper: choose handgrip of me if y'all can
While theories on self-replicating automatas were developed past times genius mathematician Von Neumann inward the early on 50s, the origin existent figurer virus was released “in lab” inward 1971 past times an employee of a society working on edifice ARPANET, the Internet’s ancestor.
Intriguing feature: Creeper looks for a machine on the network, transfers to it, displays the message “I’m the creeper, choose handgrip of me if y'all can!” together with starts over, thereby hoping from organisation to system. It was a pure proof of concept that ties the roots of figurer viruses to those of the Internet.
1982: Elk Cloner
Written past times a 15-year onetime every bit a agency to booby trap his friends’ Apple II figurer systems without physical access to them, Elk Cloner spread via floppy disks. Infected machines displayed a harmless poem, dedicated to the virus’ glory.
Intriguing feature: Elk Cloner was the origin virus e'er to spread exterior of the lab it was created in. Its global comport on was negligible together with its intent patently geeky.
1987: Jerusalem
First detected inward the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the aptly-named Jerusalem is somewhat deleterious. Each twelvemonth on Fri the 13th, this virus deleted every unmarried computer program that’s run on the infected system.
Intriguing feature: Jerusalem is the origin instance of a destructive virus to receive got a global impact. Of course, the sheer publish of computers dorsum thence was infinitesimal, compared to today.
1992: Michelangelo: The sleeper must awaken
The dormant Michelangelo virus was designed to awaken on March sixth (Michelangelo’s birthday – every bit inward the Renaissance artist, non the Ninja Turtle) together with erase critical parts of infected computers’ difficult drives.
Intriguing feature: The promises of devastation it carried spawned a media frenzy. In the weeks preceding March 6th, media relayed (and some may say amplified) experts’ predictions forecasting five 1000000 computers going definitively down. Yet, on March 6th, alone a few yard information losses were reported – together with populace trust inward AV companies’ ethics was tainted for a while.
1999: Melissa
Melissa propagated via infected Microsoft Word documents together with mailed itself to Outlook contacts of the contaminated user. It was virulent plenty to paralyze some of import mailing systems on the Internet. Its writer created the põrnikas to laurels Melissa, a stripper he’d met inward Florida. Whether he conquered her pump this agency is somewhat unlikely, simply 1 affair is sure: the malicious code earned him xx months inward jail together with a $5,000 fine.
Intriguing feature: Someone created a variant of Melissa that encrypted the infected files together with demanded a ransom of $100 to last wired to an offshore line of piece of job organisation human relationship for decryption. The writer was traced to the said account. While it remained an isolated case, it is worth noting that half-dozen years earlier the malware scene became fully monetized, person had already started figuring out how to brand bucks out of viruses.
2000: I LOVE YOU
At the dawn of the XXIst century, I LOVE YOU worm infected tens of millions of computers. As a fairly uncomplicated worm, I LOVE YOU presented itself every bit an incoming electronic mail amongst “I honey you” inward its discipline line together with infected the machine of users who opened the attachment. It thence mailed itself to all of the contacts works life on the infected user’s system.
Intriguing feature: While the author’s motivation clearly wasn’t nigh money, the damages were: When the dust settled, I LOVE YOU had terms companies about the globe betwixt $5 together with $10 billion. Much of that terms tin last attributed to the fourth dimension spent “cleaning” infected machines.
2001: Code Red
While I LOVE YOU targeted terminate users, Code Red infected Web servers, where it automatically spread past times exploiting a vulnerability inward Microsoft IIS servers. In less than 1 week, nearly 400,000 servers were infected, together with the homepage of their hosted Websites was replaced amongst “Hacked By Chinese!”
Intriguing feature: Code Red had a distinguishing characteristic designed to alluvion the White House Website amongst traffic (from the infected servers), in all probability making it the origin instance of documented ‘hacktivism’ on a large scale.
2004: Sasser
Like Code Red, Sasser spread without anyone’s help; simply this time, the virus exploited a vulnerability inward Microsoft Windows to propagate, which made it especially virulent. What’s more, due to a põrnikas inward the worm’s code, infected systems turned off every span of minutes.
Intriguing feature: For the origin time, systems whose role isn’t usually related to the Internet (and that to a greater extent than often than non existed earlier the Internet) were severely impacted. More than 1 1000000 systems were infected, AFP’s communications satellites were interrupted for hours, Delta Airlines was forced to cancel flights, the British coast guard had to larn dorsum to impress maps, together with a infirmary had to redirect its emergency room because its radiology subdivision was completely paralyzed past times the virus. The harm amount was estimated to last to a greater extent than than $18 billion.
Microsoft placed a $250,000 bounty on the author’s head, who turned out to last an 18-year onetime High German student. When caught, the educatee admitted that he created the malicious code every bit a creative agency to aid his woman raise to discovery a chore inward the figurer safety industry.
2005: MyTob, the turning point
MyTob appeared inward 2005 together with was 1 of origin worms to combine the features of a Bot (the infamous “Zombies,” controlled past times a remote Botmaster) together with a mass-mailer.
Intriguing feature: MyTob marks the entry inward the era of Botnets together with of cybercrime. Business models designed to “monetize” the many botnets appeared (some of which volition count to a greater extent than than xx 1000000 machines): installation of spyware, diffusion of spam, illegal content hosting, interception of banking credentials, blackmail, etc. The revenue generated from these novel botnets rapidly reached several billion dollars per year; a figure that is growing today.
2007: Storm botnet
By 2007, cybercriminals already had lucrative line of piece of job organisation models inward place. They’re thinking nigh protecting their coin spinners (infected computers). Before 2007, botnets showed a brutal lack of robustness: inward neutralizing its unique Control Center, a botnet could last completely neutralized, because Zombies didn’t receive got anyone to written report to (and accept commands from) anymore.
Intriguing feature: By implementing a peer-to-peer architecture, Storm became the origin Botnet amongst decentralized command… It is much to a greater extent than robust. At the peak of the epidemic, Storm had infected betwixt 1 together with 50 1000000 systems together with accounted for 8% of all malware running inward the world.
2008: Koobface
Koobface (an anagram for Facebook) spreads past times pretending to last the infected user on social networks, prompting friends to download an update to their Flash histrion inward monastic say to sentiment a video. The update is a re-create of the virus.
Intriguing feature: Koobface is the origin botnet to recruit its Zombie computers across multiple social networks (Facebook, MySpace, hi5, Bebo, Friendster, etc). Today, it is estimated that at whatever time, over 500,000 Koobface zombies are online at the same time.
2009: Conficker
Conficker is a especially sophisticated virus, every bit it’s both a worm, much similar Sasser, together with an ultra-resilient botnet, which implements bleeding-edge defensive techniques. Curiously, it seems that its propagation algorithm is poorly calibrated, causing it to last discovered to a greater extent than frequently. Some networks were thence saturated past times Conficker, that it caused planes to last grounded, including a publish of French Fighter planes. In addition, hospitals together with armed forces bases were impacted. In total to a greater extent than or less vii 1000000 systems were infected worldwide.
Intriguing feature: Conficker did non infect Ukrainian IPs, nor machines configured amongst a Ukrainian keyboard. This suggests the authors were playing past times the cybercriminal gilded rule, which implicitly states, “Don’t target anything inward your ain country, together with the arm of jurist won’t last long plenty to attain you.”
2010: Stuxnet, welcome to the cyber war
According to most threat researchers today, alone governments receive got the necessary resources to blueprint together with implement a virus of such complexity. To spread, Stuxnet exploited several critical vulnerabilities inward Windows, which, until then, were unknown, including 1 guaranteeing its execution when inserting an infected USB key into the target system, fifty-fifty if a systems autorun capabilities were disabled. From the infected system, Stuxnet was thence able to spread into an internal network, until it reached its target: a management organisation of an industrial procedure edited past times Siemens. In this detail instance, Stuxnet knew the weak betoken amongst a specific controller – possibly a cooling organisation – together with most probable intended to destroy or neutralize the industrial system.
Intriguing feature: For the origin time, the target of a virus is the devastation of an industrial organisation (very in all probability a nuclear might works life inward Iran).
What’s next?
According to the trends we’re seeing, the side past times side target for cybercriminals could last smart phones. Their widespread utilisation together with the fact that they contain a payment organisation (premium charge per unit of measurement telephone numbers) brand them slow money-generating targets. Furthermore, they receive got a localization system, a microphone, embedded GPS together with 1 (or several) cameras, which potentially allow a especially invasive spying of their owners.
News Source : net-security.org
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