The World's Worst Computer Virus: The I Love You Virus (Demonstration)

This is a demonstration of the I Love You Virus (known mostly as "ILOVEYOU"), which was recognized by the Guiness Book of World Records as the worst computer virus of all time, causing more damage than anything like it before.

May 5, 2000 was just a very average day for the very average business supervisor. Though in just a couple of hours, it would quickly turn into a day of utter chaos and turmoil. Nearly every install of brand-new computer software damaged beyond repair, over 13,000 pieces of malware detected in just one office building, and soon, over $20 billion in damage seen all across the world. What happened?

These catastrophic events were the work of a new computer worm that was circulating the internet: “ILOVEYOU.”

Quite an ironic name, but it was derived from the fact that the worm would disguise itself as a love letter coming from a secret admirer. Lo and behold, the virus caused destroyed more computers than any of its predecessors. What exactly allowed it to cause this much damage, and how did it work?

The new computer worm was circulating the world wide web. Disguised as a love letter, the ILOVEYOU virus infected millions of computers around the world, causing collectively $20 billion in damage. ILOVEYOU has since been declared one of the most catastrophic computer viruses ever developed. And for the deaf people, I HAVE CLOSED CAPTIONS!!!

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Sources:

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Cool videos on the ILOVEYOU virus you should check out!

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Google +: just kidding.

Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLeod

A special thanks to these patrons:
- Swingadee
- Ciara Atkinson
- Winolotonolo
- Tommy Sharp
- Hannah Marsh

ENJOY THE PROGRAM.

[wasifsarwer]

“I love you, and that’s why I’m taking away your PC so that you get out of that room to touch some grass”

[ham_fast]

My father received this virus back in the day at the company he worked for at the time. Fortunately he didn't open it, but after other coworkers did and told him what it was, he saved a copy of the virus to a floppy disc and still has it in our house.

[sullendays]

Love how you took the time to include proper subtitles. I'm on the bus rn, no headphones, but I can still watch the video perfectly fine because the subtitles are there. This is also great for deaf people. It shows how much effort you put into your videos. Thank you.

[andyspinball]

I've worked in IT for 30 years and I remember the day someone opened this and infected every single .JPG file on the network of the 300 person six office company I worked for. I remember the NIMDA virus too, and my company was the first one to get infected. I worked from 8:00 AM to 2:30 AM that day. I will never forget it.

[remrem]

Lmao the things that were written on his thesis
"This is illegal"
"We do not produce B U R G L A R S"

[HistoryCamel]

Imagine a virus, that all it did, was invert your mouse scroll.

[endvine]

can we all just take a moment to appreciate the fact that nationsquid travelled back in time to 2000 and wasted a computer just to show us how this virus works?

[Vgamer]

I love that thesis proposal. Dude didn’t even *pretend* that it was just for theoretical research or to help raise security awareness. Just straight up “I want to steal people’s passwords”

[Enmd]

*"Melissa"* and *"I love you"* are some of the creepiest possible names for files and why would you ever open them?

[francoismartineau]

Imagine you get the virus, it sends itself to your crush, and make the first steps for you and then you live happily ever after and have many kids.

[CrispyOkra]

The cause of the spread was that people are naive believing someone actually loves them.

[maddoxmonteza]

imagine creating such a destructive worm that your countries government adds new laws

[WetDogSquad]

Professor: "This is ILLEGAL!"
Narrator: "It was, in fact, not"

[Chris.GrooveyardBandTV]

Onel De Guzman is now an owner of a cellphone repair shop here in the Philippines.

[MusicDecomposer]

Windows should revert back to showing file extensions by default. Most people know what EXE, MP3, JPEG, etc. means nowadays. And there's always a warning that pops up when you try to rename an extension. I can't think of a good reason to hide them.

[Dystxnn]

Last time I heard about de Guzman was, he now owns a phone repair shop somewhere in my country. He was gravely incriminated because of that virus, no one wanted to give him a job right after it blew up(mistrust, I suppose). People saw him as a thief (as opposed to how code junkies see him) and would constantly berate him as a direct result. He's like a failed Robin Hood of some sorts who went out of his way to live an honest life.

--That's how I heard his story 3 years ago. I'm not sure how much of that is true.

[Elysiummmm]

I love how this guy literally has the calmest, most comforting voice ever, whilst casually downloading the worlds most deadly computer virus on his computer

[demomotized]

Idk why but names like "ILOVEYOU" and "Melissa" with no other context just freak me out. Wouldnt be able to touch the email without feeling like I'm gonna be cursed.

[TheEric]

"kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me"
So poetic. Just so much passion in that message, how could anyone pass it up?

[kernelxsanders]

This man is impressive. He traveled 20 years back in time and brought youtube with him