In the early 70's a virus was leaked out on the ARPANET, infecting the Tenex operating system. The virus was named Creeper", and if your computer was infected, it would message I AM THE CREEPER: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN". The virus would gain access independently through the modem and copy itself on to the remote system. To counteract the attack, another virus called The Reaper" was created. This was just the start. Today there are millions of worms, Trojan Horses and viruses that your PC has to defend itself against, on a daily basis. It was in 1983, that Fredrick Cohen coined and created the word virus" to define, what he called, self replica computer programs." Not all viruses have had their claim to fame, most are killed before they can even cause any damage, but a few have been able to sneak through the cracks. The Love Letter was possibly the fastest virus known to date. It simply attacked Outlook, and using the user's mailing list, e-mailed itself to the recipients as a message, with an attachment holding the virus. The reason for its success was the attachments name I love you". These three words would attract the recipient, who thought the mail came from the original user. The Love Letter caused $5.5 billion worth of damage. Not to be put to shame is the Melissa" virus, which caused $80 million worth of damage in March 1999. The virus was named after a stripper in Florida, by it's creator, David L. Smith. Within one day, it managed to spread itself around the world, clogging up mail systems and inserting quotes from Bart Simpson into documents. The Nuclear" virus also attacks documents. This virus adds a paragraph at the end of every document printed. The paragraph is a protest against French Nuclear Testing in the South Pacific. Another cause" virus is the CIH, also known as the Chernobyl. The virus sits on your computer, undetected, until the anniversary of the Chernobyl meltdown. It then attacks the BIOS chip on your computer, completely paralyzing the hard drive. Most viruses don't have a point at all, for example the 911". This virus was detected in Houston, Texas, where it takes over the computers modem and dials emergency numbers at random. The Casino" virus has even less of a point, as it plays Russian roulette with your hard drive. If you get a number wrong, you lose everything. There is a variety of anti-spy software that attacks the virus as soon as it is created. Users have to update the system online to make sure they stay ahead of the hackers. However, in a lot of cases, data loss is almost inevitable. There are various ways to recover the data from most viruses. Experts use a combination of systems to recover data. It is best to rely on data recovery specialists than attempt to do it yourself. Each virus uses a different system and method to damage the hard drive, so the same rule does not apply to all. Once you are aware that you have a virus, contact a professional to help you remove it, then a data recovery specialist to help recover your data that is lost.
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