Computer Virus Melissa

The computer virus Melissa first made its appearance in March 1999. It was originally distributed through usenet discussions. The Melissa virus was created by David Smith and was named after a lap dancer he met in Florida.

Melissa spread through Microsoft Word documents and mass emailed itself through Outlook. There were different variations of the virus but they were all destructive. Some would delete critical operating system files. Other Melissa variations would replace data with the TV show the Simpsons nonsense.

David Smith was sentenced to 10 years but only served 20 months in Federal prison and paid a $5000 fine. Pretty lenient considering this was the biggest and most widespread viral attack to hit computers.

Melissa Virus Resources