Melissa (computer virus)

The Melissa virus was a fast-spreading macro virus. It first appeared around March 26, 1999. This virus mainly attacked computers using Microsoft Word and Outlook. Melissa worked by sending itself to many people through email. This caused huge increases in network traffic, slowing down systems. The virus used infected Word documents as a way to spread. When someone opened an infected document, the virus would activate. It would then send itself to the first 50 people in the victim's Outlook address book. This rapid self-propagation made Melissa one of the most costly outbreaks at the time. Many companies had to shut down their email systems to stop its spread. Experts estimate that Melissa caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.