Approximately one-third of the world’s computers have been affected by malicious software in one form or another. Over the past 15 years, we have witnessed a whole host of vicious cyber attacks, from the ‘I Love You’ virus to the ‘Slammer’ and ‘My Doom’. These viruses or worms have caused huge damage to businesses and individuals across the globe, amounting to losses of billions of dollars.

This infographic by Supreme Systems, a leading provider of IT support in Birmingham and the West Midlands, offers a compelling overview of some of the deadliest computer viruses of all time. For example, the ‘I Love You’ virus hit computers around the world in 2000. It was an email virus – specifically, the email attachment labelled “I Love You” was what caused the real harm. Once run, it overwrote existing system files with copies of itself. Also, it downloaded a file called WIN-BUGSFIX.EXE from the web and executed it. Rather than fix bugs, this programme e-mailed sensitive information from the victim’s computer to the hacker’s e-mail address. The number of computers infected by this virus was approximately 500,000 and the reported damages of the virus were $15 Billion.

Another deadly virus to hit the masses was Storm Worm or Storm Trojan. It reportedly originated in Russia and infected around 10 million computers in 2007. Storm Worm was a backdoor Trojan horse that affected computers using Microsoft operating systems. According to experts, once an email attachment was opened, Storm Trojan implanted a service called wincom32. This passed data to other infected computers and all of the infected computers became bots i.e. a huge global network of computers controlled by Storm Trojan/ Storm Worm. It was named Storm Worm because one of the e-mail messages carrying the virus had as its subject “230 dead as storm batters Europe.” The reported damages of Storm Worm were unconfirmed but it is believed that they were in the billions.

As well as finding out about some of the most destructive computer viruses like the above, this infographic will also provide you with some interesting statistics on computer viruses. For example, find out what countries around the world are affected the most or the least by malware. Also, get a breakdown of the types of malicious software that affects us. In addition, some hackers have used significant dates to unleash their deadly viruses and this graphic will introduce you to these ‘time-specific’ computer viruses. For example, The Michelangelo virus activated on March 6, 1992 — Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475. To find out more on deadly computer viruses, check out the infographic below!