Data Structure
Networking
RDBMS
Operating System
Java
MS Excel
iOS
HTML
CSS
Android
Python
C Programming
C++
C#
MongoDB
MySQL
Javascript
PHP
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Mathematics
English
Economics
Psychology
Social Studies
Fashion Studies
Legal Studies
- Selected Reading
- UPSC IAS Exams Notes
- Developer's Best Practices
- Questions and Answers
- Effective Resume Writing
- HR Interview Questions
- Computer Glossary
- Who is Who
All about I love you Virus
Introduction
Nowadays many viruses will intentionally affect the data and the resources of the computer. One of those viruses was developed in 2000 by the young Phillips called the “I love you virus”. Mostly many viruses are intended to know secret data or damage resources or enter into other’s systems etc. Viruses or worms are very dangerous as they completely affect the system and system resources. But some of the viruses do have not much impact but they will enter can,t be removed. We can’t predict the virus easily how it will come and how it performs actions, but in most situations, we can know about it once everything has happened. It will not be in a particular form or type.
I Love You Virus
It is a virus that will enter the system and damages the files. This virus will enter the system utilizing email. It chooses email as a source and sends the mail to the intended user. Once the user opened the mail the virus enters the system and starts its action. When it wants to enter it should have internet access. The main specification is genuine mail only but when it opens the virus will enter the system. The sender of the virus targets the users and sends the email to the other users. Once the user opened the mail a copy of it will automatically send the same mail to all the users of the one who opened it.
It is a very dangerous virus that unknowingly redirects the same mail to all the contacts of the users and targets those systems. It can have the capability of overwriting any file like it may be a text file or image etc. Many viruses might be attached to emails means the source is the emails but this ‘I Love You Virus’ is a very fast-spreading capability than any other virus.
The origin of this virus or worm is from a very young boy whose age is 24 and he is Philippine, his name is “ Onel de Guzman”. After invented this virus it has effects over millions of people. Through this virus, the intended user may easily get the accessing into target user’s data like a password to access the system or network resources or any accessing of any important files, etc.
What does it do?
The “I Love You” Virus will target the user utilizing email. So the intended user will get an email with the “I Love You” representation. And it looks like the email comes from a genuine source but when we open it there is a file attached to it. As it looks genuine, and safe and prompts us to open the file we didn’t have any doubt about it because the file is with the extension of ‘.txt.vbs’, so it looks like a text file with a .vbs extension. Vbs is the visual basic script. So this virus is designed with the help of visual basic scripts.
When we open this .vbs file extension file, the file will activate by itself and enter into the local system, and starts its action of damaging a wide variety of files whether it is sensitive documents, audio files, and personal users' images. It not only stops with the local system, but it also forwards the same mail or copy of a file to the contacts of the user automatically and targets those users. The same repeats for those who open the file. This scripting file has the capability of enabling the search engine in the operating system. This happens by default after opening the file. And this virus has many variants and their source is email.
The impact of this virus is spread to other countries in a very fast manner and it infects the many computers that are connected to the internet. It leads to so much loss to many countries and decided to stop this to protect their data and save their money and time. It is the most impacted computer virus at that time and spread very fast.
How to Protect from Viruses?
As this virus is very dangerous and fast spreading so the only option to prevent the virus is to install an antivirus in the system that will alert or prompt the users while opening the file or before downloading the file. From this, users might understand that this mail is virus related. And the other alternative is not providing personal email to unknown users for any reason, opening emails in other systems and forgetting to log out of them, and not opening mail that comes from an unknown source, once a file is detected as virus-related then removing it immediately.
Conclusion
Users should have to take care while looking through their emails when they identify any mail from an unknown source or they identify any unusual subjects in the mail better not to open that. In the year 2000, the “I Love You” virus created a huge disaster on many computers worldwide. It makes people use antivirus which detects the virus that harms the computer and carefully observing of files before opening them. Following these steps may stop the effect of the virus.
177 Views
