Melissa worm

The Melissa worm was a computer worm that attacked the Microsoft e-mail client (MUA) Outlook and the word processor Microsoft Word and caused large troubles in the Internet mail systems starting March 26, 1999.

Melissa was written by David L. Smith[?] in Eatontown[?], New Jersey, and named after a lap-dancer[?] he encountered in Florida. The creator of the virus called himself Kwyjibo, but was shown to be identical to macrovirus writers VicodinES and Alt-F11 who had several Word-files with the same characteristic Globally Unique Identifier (GUID), a serial number that was earlier generated with the network card MAC address as a component.

The document that was distributed with the worm contained a list of 80 pornographic web sites and was initially posted to a Usenet newsgroup. Upon opening the document, the worm was activated. The worm would then send a copy of itself to the first 50 entries of the Outlook address book.

See Also

• Morris worm
• SQL slammer worm
• Code Red worm