Melissa (computer virus)

Melissa
Common name Melissa
Technical name W97M.Melissa.A
Type Macro virus
Author(s) David L. Smith
Operating system(s) affected Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows XP[1]

The Melissa virus, also known as "Mailissa", "Kwyjibo", or "Kwejeebo", is a mass-mailing macro virus. As it is not a standalone program, it is not a worm.

The virus is said to have infected up to 20% of computers worldwide.[2]

David L. Smith

Around March 26, 1999 Melissa was put in the wild by David L. Smith of Aberdeen Township, New Jersey.[3] (The virus itself was credited to Kwyjibo, who was shown to be macrovirus writers VicodinES and ALT-F11 by comparing MS Word documents with the same globally unique identifier — this method was also used to trace the virus back to Smith.) On December 10, 1999 Smith pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years, serving 20 months, and was fined US $5,000.[4] The arrest was the result of a collaborative effort involving (amongst others) the FBI, the New Jersey State Police, Monmouth Internet and a Swedish computer scientist.[5]

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ "W97M.Melissa.A". Symantec. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  2. ↑ "Top Ten Most Destructive Computer Viruses of All Time". Crunkish.com. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  3. ↑ Poulson. "Justice mysteriously delayed for ‘Melissa’ author".
  4. ↑ "Creator of Melissa Computer Virus Sentenced to 20 Months in Federal Prison" (Press release). U.S. Department of Justice. 2002-05-01. Retrieved 2006-08-30.
  5. ↑ Tracking Melissa's alter egos, ZDNet, 1999-04-02

External links

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