Malware and

Melissa virus.
By MAAZOUZ Hichem & ISSAADI Abde slem
Contents of this Project
1. Defintion of malware
2. Define type of malware
3. Defintion of melissa
4. How does it infect victims
5. Who is targeted
6. Melissa virus characteristics
7. How does it spread
8. What are its damages
9. How the creator was caught
10. Types of melissa
11. How to protect and prevent infection?
Defintion of malware

Malware is an umbrella term for any piece of

software that has malicious intent. There are several
types of malware and each of them has a unique
way of infiltrating your computer.

MALWARE = MALicious + softWARE

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 Define type of malware

The list of malware types is growing every

day. In this type of security attack, And
these are its types :

Malware

1.Ransomware 2.Virus 3.Trojans 4.Adware 5.Worm

6.Mobile malware 7.Spyware 8.Bots/Botnets 9.Rootkit 10. keylogger

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A virus refers to any application
that alters the code or structure
of a target file or software.

Melissa virus

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Definition

Melissa was a type of email virus that initially

became an issue in 26march 1999, by
David lee smith. It was a mass-mailing
macro virus that targeted Microsoft Word-
and Outlook-based systems.

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How does it infect victims
When the user receives an e-mail message attached
with a virus (Melissa), the subject of the message is
“Important message from….” and the text of the
message is “This is the document you requested… Do
not show it to anyone else” so that the name of the
attached file is (LIST.DOC), and the file contains A
Visual Basic script that copies the virus-infected file to
the template file (normal.dot) that Word uses for
custom settings, commands, and default macros.

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1
it may be form someone you know.
but they don't know they sent it.

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the subject line read,"important
message from"and the name may be
someone you know

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the body of the mail will read,"here is
that document you asked for don't
show anyone else"

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the attachement,where this nasty little
bug lives,has the name of list.doc

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Who is targeted?

 The virus did not destroy files or

other resources but had the potential
to disable large corporate and other
mail servers

 email distribution becoming a

much bigger problem.

 The virus has paralyzed hundreds of

networks, including those of the US
Marine Corps and Microsoft.

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Melissa virus characteristics

► Turns off main memory.

► Disables antivirus protection for documents
(Word)
► Prevents the user from working on Options (Micro)
in the Tools menu (Word 97 and Word 2000).
► It sends itself to the first 50 addresses found in an
Outlook address book.
► Works to infect documents (Word 97 and Word
2000).

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 How does it spread
The virus uses Microsoft Outlook as a means to
spread itself in e-mail messages, as it creates an
object using Visual Basic code for the address
search process. CERO and antivirus websites
have described Melissa as a disruptive security
feature.

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What are its damages
The Melissa virus was one of the
early viruses to gain a lot of
attention because it caused an
estimated $80 million of
damage that required cleanup
and repair of the affected
computer systems. According
to the FBI website, the virus
overloaded email servers at
more than 300 corporations
and government agencies,
shutting down some entirely.
The virus itself reached
thousands of computers by
sending itself through the
mailing lists of infected devices.
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How the creator was caught
Smith, Melissa’s creator, was arrested at his David L. Smith
brother’s house following an investigation led
by the FBI, the New Jersey State Police, who
had help from others, including a Swedish
computer scientist. In addition,a thousands of
records were checked in the Internet provider .
They found that the phone line used to send the
first copy of the virus was wired to Smith's
apartment They tracked him down
electronically, just a week after the malware
was released. Smith pleaded “not guilty” and
said that he had no idea the virus would inflict
this kind of damage. He claimed it was originally
meant to be a harmless joke,and was
sentenced to 20 months in federal prison and
fined $5,000.

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 meliisa u
1 This type erases important files. Before erasing it, it strips
them of their archival, hidden, and read-only attributes

Types of melissa
melissa v

2
Near Melissa.U virus. Microsoft Outlook is used to send the
first 40 mail addresses in the Outlook Address Book. The
subject of the infected message is "My Pictures ()"

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Melissa.V/E, which is known for its ability to destroy
Microsoft Excel files, and randomly erase groups of data
from files,

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Melissa W
It is not allowed to lower the level of macro security
settings in Word 2000

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The Melissa.AO payload departs at 10am on the 10th of
each month. The payload contains the virus. The following
message is entered in the file:/ “Worm! Let's We Enjoy

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How to protect and prevent infection?
1. Use a firewall.
2. Do not click on suspicious links.
3. Never open untrusted email attachments.
4. Use a paid malware removal tool with updated
5. Backup your data
6. Stay informed
7. Ignore spam
8. Secure your network

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Thanks!

Do you have any questions?