Jerusalem and Stoned top virus list
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
An email virus known as Jerasulem has been identified as one of the most successful viruses ever in a list compiled by news.com.au.
The Australian news site noted that the virus, which was first launched in 1987, became a benchmark for future email virus coding because of its simplicity and efficacy.
Jerusalem plagued users around the world throughout the 90s and was activated every year on Friday 13th, when it would delete any programs that were running on that day.
Another computer virus to make the list was the infamous Stoned virus, which also first became active in 1987 and inundated systems with messages calling for the legalisation of marijuana.
The website warned that "old viruses never die" after Stoned reappeared last year.
Elsewhere, MyFOX has recently alerted users to a prevalent computer virus which attempts to infect machines by masquerading as an antivirus product.
The site iterated the need to keep data backed up and antivirus software definitions up to date in order to maintain web security.
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