ILoveYou.txt.vbs

Happy Valentines Day!

Since today is known for love, let’s look back 21 years to one of the more destructive, costly and famous viruses in history. The “ILoveYou” worm, also known as the “Love Bug” or “Love Letter For You” infected more than ten million Windows computers, beginning on May 5, 2000. This worm began spreading as an email message with the subject line "ILOVEYOU" and the attachment "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.vbs".

Since Windows hid file extensions by default, most users thought the attachment was a text file since the file name showed LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt. When users opened the attached file, it launched a malicious Visual Basic script that overwrote files on a victim’s computer with other copies of the worm. The worm used the victim’s email account to send a copy of itself to all of the entries in the victim’s address book, allowing it to spread rapidly across the Internet.

Image by CNN

ILoveYou caused billions in damage as it quickly spread around the globe. Some of the worm’s more notable victims include the U.S. Pentagon, AT&T, Ford, and the U.K. House of Commons.

Image by CNN

2020 marked the 20th anniversary of the ILoveYou worm. It’s also when we learned more about the two Filipino men who were the focus of an investigation to find the authors of the worm.

The story is fascinating and if you want to learn more, you can read Geoff White’s 2020 article on Wired.com.

CNN also wrote an article that chronicles the history and impact of the worm.