The Melissa virus was a macro virus that became one of the most well-known computer viruses in 1999. It spread through infected Microsoft Word documents attached to email messages. When a user opened the infected document and enabled macros, the... Read More
The Melissa virus was a macro virus that became one of the most well-known computer viruses in 1999. It spread through infected Microsoft Word documents attached to email messages. When a user opened the infected document and enabled macros, the virus became active and automatically sent itself to the first 50 contacts in the user's Microsoft Outlook address book.
A macro virus is a type of malware written using a document application's macro language, such as Microsoft Word or Excel. Instead of infecting executable programs, it infects documents containing macros. When the infected document is opened, the malicious macro code runs automatically and can spread the infection to other documents or email contacts.
The Melissa virus caused significant disruption by generating a large number of emails, which overloaded mail servers and affected businesses and government organizations worldwide. Although it did not permanently destroy data, its rapid spread created serious network congestion and forced many organizations to temporarily shut down their email systems.
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