By silicon.com, 29 March 2004 16:45
NEWS 29.03.99: Corporate America was thrown into panic over the weekend by a fast-spreading computer virus that overloads email servers.
The virus - a Microsoft Word macro dubbed Melissa - replicates in two ways: by copying itself into Word documents via their underlying template, and by sending itself to fifty addresses from each user's Outlook address book.
US reports say Melissa has spread faster than any other infection to date. The situation in the US is so critical that the FBI has got involved, sending warnings to all government and military departments.
29.03.04: Melissa made headlines as the first of the 'modern' viruses - the moment when the world sat up and took note of the damage malicious code was capable of.
The self-propagating worm with the ability to spread rapidly while causing serious damage has been a recurring nightmare for system administrators ever since.
Melissa has arguably been surpassed by the likes of the Love Bug, Klez and MyDoom in more recent times but in terms of notoriety this 1999 infection still stands head and shoulders above most subsequent viruses.
In 2002, the authorities finally caught up with the writer behind Melissa, arresting him and sentencing him to 20 months in prison.
The author's willingness to comply with the authorities and his help in preventing further infections were the reason the sentence was kept relatively light. He also helped give antivirus vendors a glimpse of the future, with most viruses since Melissa developed along similar, mass-mailing lines.
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