1999+Event+1

=The Melissa Macro Virus=

The Affected
The Melissa Macro Virus only affected machines with microsoft word 97, or word 2000. It could also only resend itself through PC users with outlook express accounts.

Description
The First the the virus did was resend itself. It would send itself through Outlook Express to the first 50 users on the infected's address list. Next, the email also had an attached file. Originally the file was labelled "list". The body of the message contained the text:

Here is that document you asked for ... don't show anyone else ;-)

The subject line also stated that it was important information. If the attached word file was opened, the virus would reset the macro rules for word, thus allowing all macro's to be run without first asking the user. Then it would attach itself to the base word template, so that all basic word processing documents would be infected. Finally, if the minute of the hour matched the number of the day of the month, the virus would proceed to print the text:

Twenty-two points, plus triple-word-score, plus fifty points for using all my letters. Game's over. I'm outta here.

The virus didnt do any actual damage to any piece of the users computer other than word, but it could potentially steal any information that was entered in the word documents of infected computers, and some versions also damaged the users registry.

The virus caused a decrease in the use of email, since it was so rapidly transmitted.

This was the end of many different viruses released in the 90's that were not meant to harm computers, but merely to show-off the writers skill.

Leif Shoquist