What is the Iloveya virus?

Iloveya, also known as Love Bug, was a computer worm that infected millions of personal computers (PCS) around the world in early May 2000. After infecting a computer, he sent copies to himself to every contact found in the computer directory. Iloveyou was remarkable for both the extensive mischief he had caused, as well as for the mainstream media attention he received. The suspect authors of the program were only arrested in the Philippines when the authorities were found that the country had lacked any laws on the security of the computer to be charged.

Although Iloveya was commonly referred to as a virus, he showed behavior traditionally associated with a computer worm. The worm is replicated by themselves and is usually a separate program, while viruses can be hidden in infected files such as office documents. However, most of the worms of the previous 2000 did not remove the ensembles or caused extensive damage; Viruses were much more destructive. Iloveyou virus was a kind of hybridHo-serpered worm that infected more points on the target computer and erased pictures, movies and other file types.

e-mail systems around the world have been dearmed by infected messages bearing the "Iloveya" lines, starting on May 4, 2000. Using a joke in the way Microsoft® software has processed file extension, the virus could cover as an ordinary text file. This fraud, along with the ability of the program, has been sent by e -mail to the user's directory, has led much to believe that they received a love letter from someone they knew.

While Ilovey's virus infected tens of millions of computers around the world, its impact was also felt among Internet users who were not infected. A large number of network traffic generated by infected machines by the other's virals have amazed many postal servers to prevent LegTo pass it to it. Some large companies and institutions, including the US Senate and the British House, have completely closed their e-mail systems to deal with the problem. The massive impact of Iloveya worm led to some of the first mainstream media coverage of computer viruses.

almost immediately after the virus has gained global attention, the authorities set the Philippines as the possible origin of the error. The Philippine police arrested two computer programming students in connection with their investigation, but the two were eventually released when it was found that the Philippines had no laws specifically prohibiting the creation of computer viruses. The country approved such law only three months after the Iloveya virus appeared, but the suspicious authors could not be charged with the azlain committed before legislation came into force.