Melissa (computer virus)

Common card · No. 347005

The Melissa virus was a mass-mailing macro virus released by David L. Smith of Aberdeen Township, New Jersey on March 26, 1999. Melissa spread through infected Microsoft Word documents. When a recipient opened one, the virus used Microsoft Outlook to send copies to the first 50 entries in the user's address book. The messages appeared to come from known contacts, so recipients were more likely to open the attachment. Melissa did not ordinarily delete files, but the volume of email it generated overloaded mail servers, disrupted about one million email accounts and led some organizations to suspend email service. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) estimated that cleanup and repair costs reached $80 million and described Melissa as the fastest-spreading computer infection at the time. Smith was arrested less than a week after the virus release, pleaded guilty to state and federal computer offenses that December, and was sentenced in 2002 to 20 months in federal prison.

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