Melissa virus
E701338
The Melissa virus was a notorious mass-mailing macro virus from 1999 that spread via infected Microsoft Word documents and caused widespread disruption to email systems worldwide.
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
computer virus
ⓘ
macro virus ⓘ mass-mailing email worm ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Melissa.A
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
W97M.Melissa NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| arrestDateOfCreator | April 1999 ⓘ |
| category |
1999 in computing
ⓘ
email worms ⓘ macro viruses ⓘ malware incidents in the United States ⓘ |
| creator | David L. Smith NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| effect |
disruption of corporate networks
ⓘ
email system slowdowns ⓘ overloaded email servers ⓘ spread of infected Word documents ⓘ |
| emailBodyText | Here is that document you asked for ... don't show anyone else ;-) ⓘ |
| emailsSentPerInfection | up to 50 recipients ⓘ |
| emailSubjectLine | Important Message From [username] ⓘ |
| estimatedDamageCost |
between 80 million and 385 million US dollars
ⓘ
tens of millions of US dollars ⓘ |
| fileExtensionTargeted | .doc ⓘ |
| firstDiscovered |
1999
ⓘ
March 1999 ⓘ |
| geographicScope | worldwide ⓘ |
| inspired |
greater awareness of macro security in office software
ⓘ
increased security measures for email attachments ⓘ |
| legalConsequenceForCreator |
arrest of David L. Smith
ⓘ
federal prosecution in the United States ⓘ prison sentence for David L. Smith ⓘ |
| malwareType | macro virus ⓘ |
| namedAfter | a stripper named Melissa ⓘ |
| notableCharacteristic |
caused denial-of-service–like conditions on mail servers
ⓘ
did not directly destroy data ⓘ |
| notableFor |
being one of the first widely publicized email viruses
ⓘ
demonstrating the risk of macro viruses in office documents ⓘ |
| payloadTrigger | opening an infected Word document ⓘ |
| primaryInfectionVector |
email attachments
ⓘ
infected Microsoft Word documents ⓘ |
| propagationMethod |
mass-mailing via email
ⓘ
sending itself to contacts in Outlook address book ⓘ |
| spreadMechanism | infecting Word document macros ⓘ |
| targetApplication |
Microsoft Outlook
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Microsoft Word 2000 NERFINISHED ⓘ Microsoft Word 97 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| targetPlatform | Microsoft Windows NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| usesTechnology |
Microsoft Outlook
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Microsoft Word NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| writtenIn | Microsoft Word macro language NERFINISHED ⓘ |
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.