What is the Melissa Virus?

Melissa virus, a computer virus written in the spring of 1998 by American David L. Smith using Word's macro operations, is mainly transmitted by mail. The subject of the email is usually "This is for you. Don't let anyone see it."

Melissa virus

Smith named it

The Melissa virus is usually transmitted by email, and the title of the email is usually "This is for your information. Don't let anyone see it." Once the recipient opens the message, the virus will automatically copy and send the same message to the first 50 friends in the user's address book.

Macro.Word97.Melissa (Melissa virus) will close Word

(ENet News) The AVERT team (Anti-Virus Rapid Response Team) at NAI Labs warned on Tuesday that two new variants of the infamous Melissa virus appeared. The virus has paralyzed more than 100,000 computers. Although Network Associates' anti-virus software has monitored the spread of the new virus, the virus is rapidly spreading through email operations. The AVERT team rated the virus as moderate.

These two new variants are called Melissa U and Melissa V. They change the subject of the email to "pictures" or "My Pictures", respectively, followed immediately by the sender's registered Word97 or Word2000 username.

The "Melissa" virus broke out in March 1999 and disguised itself as an "important information" email from a friend or colleague. After the user opens the email, the virus will send the infected computer to send out 50 infected emails. Although the virus does not delete computer system files, the large number of e-mails it generates can block and e-mail servers. On April 1, 1999, with the assistance of AOL, the US government brought Smith to justice.

On May 7, 2002, the United States Federal Court recently sentenced the virus maker to 20 months in prison and additional penalties. This is the first time that the United States has severely punished a major computer virus maker.

In a federal court on May 1, both prosecutors and defendants determined that the damage caused by the "Melissa" virus exceeded $ 80 million. Smith, who compiled the virus, also acknowledged that designing a computer virus was a "huge mistake." "immoral".

According to foreign news sources, the 34-year-old Smith could have been in prison for five years, but because he helped the government find other virus makers, he was able to get away with it lightly. Punishments include fines of $ 5,000, participation in community services, and bans on computers and the Internet.

Cybersecurity experts believe that the punishment for Smith is a wake-up call for potential virus makers to let them understand that it is costly to make viruses spread on the Internet.