ILOVEYOU Virus Lessons Learned Report
Abstract
On 4 May OO the "lLOVEYOU" Virus, also known as the "Love Bug", originated in the Philippines and wormed its way into government and business E-mail systems around the globe from Australia and Hong Kong westward through Asia, Europe, and the U.S, including throughout HQ FORSCOM and its subordinate commands. The "lLOVEYOU" Virus spread about 15 times faster than last year's Melissa computer virus. The program's rapid proliferation brought E-mail Systems worldwide to a grinding halt forcing technicians to take hundreds of systems off-line. The virus was spread through an E-mail attachment designed to propagate the virus message automatically throughout an agency's Global Email Address Directory. Unsuspecting users who opened the attachment automatically caused the virus to start spreading throughout their agencies' E-mail System. This overloaded E- mail servers and caused technicians to shut down servers to assess what was happening and attempt to fix the problem. The virus spread throughout Army networks before Army anti-virus software updates that could detect and remove it were available. FORSCOM DOIMs and activities responded quickly to contain the virus but in the process, email service was impacted. The impact of the virus as reported to the Army Computer Emergency Response Team (ACERT) is: workstations infected - 2258, manhours lost - 12,010, estimated cost - $79.2K.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 29, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA415104