Here are the top ten most destructive viruses unleashed over the last decade into the digital domain.
1. Storm Worm
Storm Worm was released in 2007 anc was rumoured to have hailed from Russia. It came in the form of an email link, usually with an important headline to grab the victim’s attention. When the victim clicks the link the code is inserted and payload with a backdoor into the system is opened. It infected over 10 million computers worldwide.
2. Conficker
Conficker was a 2008 worm that infected an estimated 15 million Windows computers worldwide. The French Navy, UK Ministry of Defence, hospitals and local police forces were affected. It was spread via Facebook, Skype and mail services, and infected networked computers with a key logger that the hacker could use to record your keyboard strokes
3. Daprosy Worm
2009 saw the release of ihe Daprosy Worm whereby an estimated 20 million computers were infected with a key logger. What made this such a dangerous virus was that it remained active in Windows safe Mod ? so it was very difficult to r emove.
4. Stuxnet
Stuxnet was rumoured to have been a US Intelligence created virus that was designed to Infect Iranian nuclear power plants, thus stopping them from potentially creating weapons grade material Whether you believe that or not, it was one the worst viruses to appear in moden times.
5. Duqu
Duqu was released in 2011 and shared many characteristics with Stuxnct. However Duqu had different roles: it would work as a key logger, to steal digital certificates, gather information about an infected PC, or completely wipe the contents of any connected hard drives. Interestingly, parts of the Duqu code were written in an unknown high level programming language.
6. Shamoon
Shamoon was discovered in 2012 and developed to infect the Windows kernel, the core code of [he operating system. It successfully managed to wipe the contents of millions of hard drives and was rumoured to be used in cyber espionage in the energy industry,
7. CryptoLocker
CryptoLocker is a ransomware infection that first appeared in 2015, As with most ransomware code it locks and encrypts your entire hard drive and offers to unlock them if the victim pays up to $300. Remarkably, the code
was able to delete itself whilst still keeping the files encrypted and locked.
8. CryptoLocker
2014 Regin virus was spread via fake websites and infected tens of millions of computers. Rumour has it that it was a joint US and UK Intelligence created virus for global digital surveillance but well leave chat for the conspiracy theorists to argue over. Nevertheless, it managed to send information of the victims computer back to an unknown location.
9. Rombertik’s Endless Loop
Rombertik’s Endless Loop is an interesting, if somewhat deadly, virus to have sprung up in 2015. When infected, the virus wiII alter and delete key boot files for Windows computers then force them to reboot. With the boot files, missing or altered the Windows PC will cant nuatly boot and reboot itself until you re- nstall the OS.
10. Tiny Banker
Tiny Banker is an information and packet sniffer virus that will record and onIine banking detaiIs the victim enters in their computer. That information is then sort back to several servers which the hackers can then use to access your bank accounts. It’s estimated that hundreds of millions were stolen in 2016 thanks toTiny Banker.
