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Index |
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Study Guide
General Information Page - www.melissavirus.com
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Friday, March 26th - Melissa Virus posted to alt.sex message board
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Affects Word 97 and 2000 macros and replicates itself using Microsoft Outlook
automatic emailings
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Discernable by email subject "Important message from [username]"
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Overloads email systems of many users and companies all over the US
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Suspect David Smith arrested Thursday, April 1st after leads provided by
AOL
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Inital email traced to skyrocket@aol.com - owner denies he wrote the virus
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GUID's, or traceable identification numbers, are found in virus - leads
to reverse engineering of ethernet address
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Link to VicodinES discovered - "retired" virus writer
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AOL provides information on user based on date and time
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David Smith is arrested - but pleads innocent to all counts claiming he
never intended to do wrong
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Still questionable whether Smith is VicodinES or whether he borrowed VicodinES's
code
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Melissa Virus thought by some to be a beneficial eye-opener to possible
future viruses
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However, also thought to be a precedent for malicious virus writers
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Variants such as Papa and Mad Cow created but hardly noticeable
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Segue to possible viruses that may execute without needing to execute
attachments?
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