ILOVEYOU Virus

What Does ILOVEYOU Virus Mean?

The ILOVEYOU virus is a computer worm that spread through email attachments in 2000. The ILOVEYOU worm was written in Microsoft Visual Basic Script (VBS) and exploited the fact that the scripting engine system was enabled by default in Windows. ILOVEYOU spawned many variants carrying payloads that could overwrite data, change files, download other malware and email themselves using Microsoft Outlook.

ILOVEYOU is also known as the love letter virus and the lovebug worm.

Techopedia Explains ILOVEYOU Virus

ILOVEYOU was created by Onel de Guzman of the Philippines. It was one of the first worms to effectively use social engineering to prompt victims to open the files, an innovation that was copied by many later forms of malware. ILOVEYOU was also one of the most virulent worms, purportedly infecting 45 million machines worldwide, leading to more than $8 billion in damages.