There have been many computer viruses out there. However, there are some computer viruses that can ruin your life. Here, we have assembled a list of the top 5 computer viruses that can ruin your life.
NUMBER 1 AND 2 TOP COMPUTER VIRUSES THAT CAN RUIN YOUR LIFE: Sasser and Netsky
A teen in Germany created the two computer viruses. The teen released the Sasser worm in 2004, after Microsoft issued a patch for a vulnerability in its Windows’ LSASS. The Sasser worm exploited the vulnerability on machines that did not get the patch. Variants of the Sasser worm took out hospital and airline networks, among numerous other networks. Overall, it caused $18 billion in damages.
The teen who released the Sasser worm also released Netsky in 2014. According to the teen’s version of the story, he was just trying to help out his mother with her struggling PC business. He was trying to create a virus that would destroy other viruses. However, it took out the viruses like Bagle and MyDoom, and more besides. Netsky caused systems to collapse due to all the internet traffic.
Despite the German teen’s malicious viruses, the German media treated him well. Thus, he was hired for a job at Securepoint.
NUMBER 3 TOP COMPUTER VIRUS THAT CAN RUIN YOUR LIFE: SQL Slammer/Sapphire
SQL Slammer/Sapphire took up only 376 bytes. However, the worm managed to slow down the internet. It also disabled 911 call centers, took out 13k Bank of America ATM machines, and caused a lot of South Korea to go offline. It somehow also managed to crash the network at Ohio’s Davis-Besse nuclear plant.
NUMBER 4 TOP COMPUTER VIRUS THAT CAN RUIN YOUR LIFE: Zeus
The Zeus, aka Zbot, malware program was a trojan virus that spread in 2009 as part of a criminal enterprise. It used phishing and keylogging to steal online banking information. As a result, it drained approximately $70 million from its victims’ accounts.
NUMBER 5 TOP COMPUTER VIRUS THAT CAN RUIN YOUR LIFE: Cryptolocker
Cryptolocker is a relatively new malware that came up due to the fight for Bitcoin. Infected computers have important files encrypted and held at ransom for $300 in Bitcoin. People who fail to pay $300 in Bitcoin to the hackers do not get the encryption key. Instead, they get their data deleted forever.
