Top 5 Deadliest Computer Viruses

Welcome to CNET Top 5. For each time we meet, we count down another hot CNET list, I’m Tom Merritt. Everybody thought that configure worm might do something nasty on April 1st. It didn’t, but, Top 5 acquired these viruses is no fun. So, we turn to the London Times and McAfee who teamed up to list the top five deadliest viruses. Let’s count them down.

At number five, Nimda, from back in October 2004. What a clever virus. It could be in a web page, an instant message, or emails. Sometimes, you didn’t even have to open an attachment to get it. It is estimated that no business escaped its infectious charms.

Coming in at number four, the Bagle and Netsky viruses. These two pals came by mail in 2004 and took control of your machine. But, the cool part was they tried to disable each other. It was a battle of malicious software and your PC was the battlefield.

Up to number three, the Storm Worm. It arrived like a little Christmas present in December 2006 and still really hasn’t left. While, it’s entertaining you with the video, it turns your machine into a zombie member of one of the largest bought nets ever.

Climbing in at number two, the Slammer, the fastest virus ever. It launched January 25th, 2003 and infected 75,000 machines in 30 minutes. Once you were infected, your machine began reaching out to touch and infect other machines. It speed ground a lot of big businesses right to a halt.

Before we get to number one, a question, which virus to global risks specialist MI2G estimate cost $38.5 billion in damage? It’s not on this list because a lot of analyst think that MI2G was a bit bullish with their prediction. Be one of the first ten people to get the answer right by replying to our blog post at blog.cnettv.com and you could win this throw box CNET fleece. It’ll keep you warm if you get a virus.

Let’s get to our number one. The deadliest virus ever at number one it’s I love you. No, no I mean the virus called I love you. also known as love letter, it broke hearts around the world in May 2000 by asking folks to kindly check the attached love letter coming from me. And then hijacked your email program and sent itself to everyone in your address book and you were left called alone and ashamed.

Well, that’s it for this edition of CNET top five. Don’t forget to look for our blog post about this top five at blog.cnettv.com. Answer our question for a chance to win the fleece. I'm Tom Merritt, see you next time.