![]() ![]() vbs was hidden from view on Windows machines. The attachment in the ILOVEYOU virus is a VBScript program that recipients at the time mistook for a simple text file because the extension. How does the ILOVEYOU virus work and spread? Although it is referred to as a virus, ILOVEYOU is actually a worm. These recipients assumed the email was a genuine declaration of love or a funny joke, opened it out of curiosity and inadvertently helped spread it further. The email consisted of the subject line "ILOVEYOU" and a simple message: "kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me." When a recipient opened their email, the virus sent copies of itself to everyone in their address book. When the affected user opens the attachment, their action instantly downloads the worm into their system without their knowledge and starts spreading it across the network. ILOVEYOU works via email, specifically via a malicious email attachment. It doesn't even need to attach itself to software. ![]() While a virus is malicious code that replicates itself following human intervention, a worm is a type of malware that can replicate itself and spread from system to system without human interaction or intervention. ILOVEYOU is also known as the "love letter virus" and the "love bug worm." Although commonly referred to as a computer virus, ILOVEYOU is actually a worm. Army, and parliaments in Denmark and the U.K., had to completely shut down their email services as they tried to bring the virus under control and mitigate its damage. It spread so quickly that many major enterprises like the Ford Motor Company, AT&T and Microsoft, as well as government organizations like the Pentagon, CIA, U.S. In just about 10 days, ILOVEYOU reached an estimated 45 million users and caused about $10 billion in damages. In fact, this is exactly what happened on May 4, 2000. Since Microsoft Outlook is widely installed as the default email management application in corporate networks worldwide, the ILOVEYOU virus can spread rapidly within a corporation. Perhaps more seriously, it results in the loss of every JPEG, MP3 and certain other files on all recipients' hard disks. The ILOVEYOU virus comes in an email with "ILOVEYOU" in the subject line and contains an attachment that, when opened, results in the message being re-sent to everyone in the recipient's Microsoft Outlook address book. ![]()
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