Mydoom facts for kids
The Mydoom virus was a very harmful computer virus that attacked computers using Microsoft Windows. It was also known as a "worm" because it could spread itself. Mydoom spread mostly through emails, often looking like a message that didn't send correctly. It became one of the fastest-spreading viruses ever.
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How Mydoom Spread and Attacked
The Mydoom virus was designed to travel inside an attachment in an email. When someone opened this attachment, the virus would automatically download itself onto their computer. Mydoom could only infect computers that ran on the Windows operating system.
What Mydoom Did to Computers
Once on a computer, Mydoom had a few jobs. One of its main tasks was to send out a lot of unwanted emails, also known as spam, to the website of a company called SCO Group. This company was involved in arguments about copyrights for some open source software. However, only about 25% of the infected computers actually launched this attack.
Mydoom also left a "backdoor" open on the infected computer. This backdoor was like a secret entrance that could allow other harmful programs, called malware, to get onto the computer later.
Mydoom.B: A New Version
A different version of the virus, called Mydoom.B, was discovered shortly after the original. This version was made to attack Microsoft's website with a lot of spam. It was first found on January 28, 2004.
History of the Mydoom Outbreak
The Mydoom virus was first identified as a major threat on January 26, 2004. It spread incredibly fast and quickly became a big problem for the SCO Group.
Rewards for Finding the Creator
To try and catch the person who created the virus, the SCO Group offered a large reward of $250,000 U.S. dollars. When Mydoom.B, the version that attacked Microsoft, was found on January 28, Microsoft also offered a $250,000 U.S. dollar reward for information leading to the creator. This was the third time Microsoft had offered such a reward for a virus creator.
Website Attacks
On February 1, 2004, the Mydoom virus successfully shut down the SCO Group's website. It did this by launching many denial-of-service attacks, which means it flooded the website with so much traffic that it couldn't handle it and crashed. On February 3, the virus also attacked Microsoft's website, but it caused only minor damage there.
Impact of the Mydoom Virus
Mydoom caused many problems during its active period in 2004. It made internet speeds around the world much slower, reducing them by about 50%. At its peak, Mydoom was responsible for sending one out of every twelve emails worldwide. This shows how widespread and powerful it was.
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See also
In Spanish: MyDoom para niños
