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.

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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.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…