Melissa

The Melissa virus is a mass-mailing macro virus released on or around March 26, 1999. It targets Microsoft Word and Outlook-based systems and created considerable network traffic. The virus infects computers via email; the email is titled "Important Message From," followed by the current username. Upon clicking the message, the body reads, "Here's that document you asked for. Don't show anyone else ;)." Attached is a Word document titled "list.doc," containing a list of pornographic sites and accompanying logins for each. It then mass-mails itself to the first fifty people in the user's contact list and disables multiple safeguard features on Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook. Description The virus was released on March 26, 1999, by David L. Smith. Smith used a hijacked AOL account to post the virus onto an Internet newsgroup called "alt.sex." And it soon ended up on similar sex groups and pornographic sites before spreading to corporate networks. However, the virus itself was credited to Kwyjibo, the Macro virus writer for VicodinS and ALT-F11, by comparing Microsoft Word documents with the same globally unique identifier. This method was also used to trace the virus back to Smith. The "list.doc" file contains a Visual Basic script that copies the infected file into a template file used by Word for custom settings and default macros. If the recipient opens the attachment, the infecting file was read to computer storage. The virus then creates an Outlook object, reads the first 50 names in each Outlook Global Address Book, and sends a copy of itself to the addresses read. Melissa works on Microsoft Word 97, Microsoft Word 2000 and Microsoft Outlook 97 or 98 email clients. Microsoft Outlook is not needed to receive the virus in email, but it is unable to spread via other emails without it.