Iloveyou is also an overwriting vbs virus, and it spreads itself using the mirc internet relay chat client as well. Iloveyou, sometimes referred to as love bug or love letter for you, is a computer worm that infected over ten million windows personal computers on and after 4 may 2000 when it started spreading as an email message with the subject line iloveyou and the attachment love letter for you. Current loveletter goes back to creeper desease that was created in 1970s. How to deal with the i love you virus latest update. The virus is spread by a mail message with the subject line iloveyou. I love you computer virus and worm help and information including variant. The iloveyou virus sometimes related to as love letter or love bug. This file contains the worm, and it will be sent using mirc whenever the user joins an irc channel.
Iloveyou, sometimes referred to as love bug or love letter for you, is a computer worm that infected over ten million windows personal computers on and after 4 may 2000 when it started spreading as an email message with the subject line iloveyou and the attachment loveletterforyou. The love letter virus, also known as the iloveyou virus, iloveyou, and love letter, was a computer worm originating in the philippines, which began infecting computers on may 5, 2000. I had even heard about this virus on the way into work that day. A new gallup poll of american email users shows that email users were very aware of the iloveyou virus and that about one out of five was victimized by it, but that less than 10% of email users who are. Global anti spyware companies are striving to produce comely loveletter removal tools as documents that include macros are also attacked. Dec 19, 2011 how to extend trial period of any software in 5 minutes. That morning when i sat down, i saw an email from the ceo just down the hall with i love you. May 6 marked the 15 year anniversary of the infamous iloveyou love letter email virus. This vbscript virus, like melissa, uses microsoft outlook to send email with an attachment file love letter for you.
The sender line will be the address it was sent from. The iloveyou virus is a computer worm that spread through email attachments in 2000. Be aware that it writes itself into the registry so that even if you clean the pc the next time it boots it will reinstall itself. The iloveyou worm was written in microsoft visual basic script vbs and exploited the fact that the scripting engine system was enabled by default in windows.
According to antivirus software producer mcafee, the iloveyou virus had a wide range of. Jul 16, 2015 may 6 marked the 15 year anniversary of the infamous iloveyou love letter email virus. Rother j virus was the precursor of computer infections out of laboratory. If you are using mirc, delete the i file from the mirc installation directory. To accomplish this the worm replaces the i file from the mirc installation directory. May 05, 2000 the new variants can elude antivirus software designed to block the i love you bug and could potentially cause the same damage. Its spread through an email with a subject line that said i love you in 2000. This email has no body text, but carries a file attachment, loveletterforyou. Loveletter virus source code below is the text of the pathetic loveletter virus, for anyone whos interested.
The iloveyou virus sometimes related to as love letter or love bug, was triggered as an email message with the subject line iloveyou and the attachment loveletterforyou. When it is executed, iloveyou first copies itself to the windows system directory as mskernel32. May 04, 2010 the anti virus companies released a fix around gmt but few could get hold of it because so many people were trying to download it at the same time. A visual basic script worm that spread widely around the world simply because people were too curious for their own good and opened an email attachment without knowing what was in it. This email has no body text, but carries a file attachment, love letter for you.
Was working as the sole sys admintech support for a manufacturing company with about a hundred people. A visual basic script worm that spread widely around the world simply because people were too curious for their own good and opened an e. The malwarelaced attachment was named loveletterforyou. That makes the love bug computer virus 20 years old today, depending on your timezone and how early in the infection chain you were. You can help protect yourself from scammers by verifying that the contact is a microsoft agent or microsoft employee and that the phone number is an official microsoft global customer service number. This file contains the worm and it will be sent using mirc whenever another person joins an irc channel where the infected user currently is. Dec 08, 2016 the iloveyou virus is a computer worm that spread through email attachments in 2000. The subject of the email said that the message was a love letter from a secret admirer. What is the iloveyou worm, what does it do, and how do i. The virus arrives in an email with the subject line of iloveyou with an. I love you virus affects one out of five email users.
The original worm had the file name of loveletterforyou. The groupwise standalone gwcheck utility has a feature called itempurg. The new variants can elude antivirus software designed to block the i love you bug and could potentially cause the same damage. The virus contains the following text at the beginning of the code. The virus is particularly nasty and rewrites an awful lot of files. Memorable for its loveletterforyou attachment and iloveyou subject line, was one of the. Vbsloveletter is a worm written in visual basic script. The virus came in an email with a subject line that said i love you. The i love you virus spreads to 55 million computers around the world. Dozens more copycat attacks are expected, security experts said. Now give this file to the person you want through pendrive or as an attachment and convince them to execute this file this virus is harmless and can. The email attachment was called love letter for you. It has been reformatted as an plain texthtml file, so theres no need to worry about being infected by it. Below is the text of the pathetic loveletter virus, for anyone whos interested.
The iloveyou virus initially traveled the internet by email, just like the melissa virus. The original worm had the file name of love letter for you. Tech support scams are an industrywide issue where scammers trick you into paying for unnecessary technical support services. Vbs file and run it, espescially if you have installed any new msie. The love letter virus variants a, b, c, e, f, and h can be removed manually by following the steps below. It is a service that you subscribe to when you buy and install software on your computer. The malwarelaced attachment was named love letter for you. Propelled by the convenience of email and the power of flattery, the i loveyou computer virus spread through asia and europe and into the inboxes of thousands of american email users. Aug 17, 2018 the iloveyou virus sometimes related to as love letter or love bug, was triggered as an email message with the subject line iloveyou and the attachment loveletterforyou. The loveletter worm, memorable for its loveletterforyou attachment and. Jan 25, 2009 the i love you virus also known as the love virus and spreads mainly via emails. This vbscript virus, like melissa, uses microsoft outlook to send email with an attachment file loveletterforyou. It has been reformatted as an plain texthtml file, so.
The vbs was mistaken by users as a normal text file, however, the vbs actually the vbscript program which the hackers used to create the worm. Love letter is a vbs worm that spread widely around the world simply because people were too curious for their own good. It spread by email, arriving with the subject line iloveyou and an attachment, love letter for you. The message body is kindly check the attached loveletter coming from me. Sharon gaudin, virus damage worst on record for august. The virus arrives in an email with the subject line of iloveyou with an attachment loveletterforyou. Kill any process containing love from the task manager. Loquis was the first of seven billion readers to submit this story about the i love you virus and the uk. Iloveyou, sometimes referred to as love bug or love letter for you, is a computer worm that infected over ten million windows personal computers on and. After that, the worm creates an html file called loveletterforyou. Then the worm will use outlook to mass mail itself to everyone in each address book. It spreads through email as a chain letter, using the outlook email application. Since the vbs extension was hidden by default, it seemed to recipients that the attachment was a harmless txt file. Youll need to implement virus protection software at the desktop, and possibly other solutions to fix infected machines.
The malware was a worm that was downloaded by clicking on an attachment called loveletterforyou. In several articles over the past few months, ive repeated pointed out that technology is evolving so rapidly that software is no longer really a product. How the loveletter virus corrupted our tech by playing on our emotions. Vbs file and run it, espescially if you have installed any new msie this little bugger will wipe out your mp3s. According to david harley, senior research fellow at eset, much of the virus s success was a result. The virus is regarded as the first major virus spread by email iloveyou reportedly infected tens of millions of computers worldwide, and cost billions of dollars in damage. The love letter virus, also known as the iloveyou virus, iloveyou, and. The iloveyou virus comes in an email note with i love you in the subject line and contains an attachment that, when opened, results in the message being resent to everyone in the recipients. The user must download and execute the worm by clicking on it. The name is believed to originate from the subject of the mails but there have been some other modifications in the name like mothers day and joke virus. Being curious types, people clicked into the email with aplombregardless of the fact the email wasnt from anyone they knew. Vbscript iloveyou, sometimes referred to as love bug or love letter for you, is a computer worm that infected over ten million windows personal computers on and after 4 may 2000 when it started spreading as an email message with the subject line iloveyou and the attachment loveletterforyou. The worm creates an html file called loveletterforyou. Once the attachment was opened, a vbs script would overwrite image files and send the loveletter email to all contacts in the victims outlook address book.
1341 1638 855 393 1544 1049 928 1536 1075 186 1462 1023 430 22 1667 1150 1193 851 169 37 716 626 536 274 1671 1225 425 1083 276 477 801 1113 451 1062 539 699 1248 1469 1056 15 590 1428 1194 954 300