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Melissa - Nothing but a virus



Melissa refers to a virus, that Written in macro language (visual basic for application languages that use to create MS excel and other word processing software) and disseminates through e-mail attachment. It was the first malicious software which contains the virus, worm, and Trojan as one package and it was found in 1998-1999 span. Melissa has the capability to affect over 1 million computers within 3 days. Once your device is infected by Melissa, receiving emails will be blocked.

The email which carries out the Melissa virus has subject line as “important message from someone” and body text starts with “here is that document you asked for… don’t show anyone else”. The email attachment typically stars as ‘LIST.Doc’. When the recipient opens the email or clicks on the attachment, the software will be immediately activated. Then it sends the same email to the emails addresses which are in the victim’s mail address book. And also it copies itself to documents that are in infected computer storage. Moreover, it propagates by itself like a worm. It will display Simpson cartoon quote “Twenty-two points, plus triple word score, plus fifty points for using all my letters. Game over. I am outta here” when triggered occurred.

Subsequently, undefined error messages, display a blue screen with errors, Interruption in system performance, unexpected removals in files and folders, unexpected termination of a process can be take placed. Since you cannot evade emails, be always cautious about the email you receive, whether the emails have the above characteristics. Besides, delete those suspicious emails and inform the sender too.  


Comments

  1. EduInfoMarch 11, 2019 at 1:44 PM

    Very informative . Waiting for future articles😇

    ReplyDelete

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