{"id":5074,"date":"2018-08-19T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-19T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/blog\/?p=5074"},"modified":"2025-05-31T17:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T12:27:07","slug":"melissa-virus-stay-protected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/blog\/comodo-news\/melissa-virus-stay-protected\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Melissa Virus? How to Stay Protected from them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/shadowpad-malware.png\" alt=\"Melissa Virus\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Melissa is a macro virus that was wide-spread through a suspicious e-mail attachment in 1999. It was initially sent as a Microsoft Word file, which when clicked to open, emailed the malicious content to another 50 contacts of the victim\u2019s address book.<\/p>\n<p>It does not infect any of the files or any other computer resources, while it distorts the email servers as the wavelet of the email dispersal begins to grow bigger n bigger. Reports reveal, that the Melissa attack has spawned the Microsoft Corporation to close down and stop incoming emails on March 26th 1999.<\/p>\n<p>It does not infect any of the files or any other computer resources, while it distorts the email servers as the wavelet of the email dispersal begins to grow bigger n bigger. Reports reveal, that the Melissa attack has spawned the Microsoft Corporation to close down and stop incoming emails on March 26th 1999.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How Melissa Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Melissa comes in the form of genuine looking attachment to the user\u2019s email with a subject mentioned as \u201cImportant message from the person\u2019s name\u201d and the body text -&#8220;Here is that document you asked for&#8230;don&#8217;t show anyone else ;-)&#8221;.The attachment comes in the name LIST.DOC. When the victim tries and opens the attachment, the malicious file moves in to the computer storage. The file incepted in an Internet newsgroup while it contains a actalog of passwords for a range of websites that demands a membership. The malicious file holds a script in Visual Basic. It generates an entry in Windows registry:<br \/>\nHKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice&#8221;Melissa?&#8221;=&#8221;&#8230;by Kwyjibo&#8221;<br \/>\nThe malware then generates an outlook object deploying the Visual Basic Code, that helps to access the 50 contacts from each Address Book while the malicious mails are sent to the 50 contacts with the malicious attachment which causes the same infection. This virus targets only Outlook. This virus impairs the existing security system<br \/>\nIn certain cases, the following text is written at the existing cursor position which states:<br \/>\n&#8220;Twenty-two points, plus triple-word score, plus fifty points for using all my letters. Game&#8217;s over. I&#8217;m outta here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>How to Prevent Melissa<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You cannot avoid receiving and reading e-mails \u2013 be wary and do not open attachments if you find them suspicious. Especially if you get an email with &#8220;Important Message from [the name of someone],&#8221; and do not attempt to open an attachment especially if you find a doc with the name LIST.DOC \u2013 do not click on it. Make a note of the email address of the sender and delete the email. (<a href=\"https:\/\/beldingandmull.com\/ambien-zolpidem\/\">beldingandmull.com<\/a>)  Inform the sender that the computer is infected.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What are the Symptoms of Melissa Attack<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The following are the basic symptoms<\/p>\n<p>Unpredictable behaviour of computer<br \/>\nUncertain error messages<br \/>\nWindows showing Blue screen errors<br \/>\nA downtime in system performance<br \/>\nWhen programs abruptly stops responding<br \/>\nRandom Spam messages<br \/>\nAbrupt deletions of files and folders<\/p>\n<p><strong>How to stay protected from Melissa? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Install an efficient <a href=\"https:\/\/www.comodo.com\/home\/internet-security\/antivirus.php\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"antivirus software\">antivirus software<\/a> or an internet secuirty suite like Comodo Internet Security Suite as it features robust threat and virus protection techniques like containment and malware verdict system called the valkyrie. which can help users to filter out even the most notorious unknown and zero day threats from infecting the normal operations of the system. Also update all the software as and when there is a patch release from the vendor \u2013 this can be done by configuring the system for automatic updates so that you will not miss on any updates. Enable the<a href=\"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/free-antivirus.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> antivirus protection<\/a> always enabled to ensure absolute protection from virus.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/download\/thank-you.php?prod=cloud-antivirus&#038;track=16678&#038;af=16678\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" onclick=\"ga('send', 'event', {eventCategory: 'Antivirus Blog', eventAction: 'Download', eventLabel: 'Bottom FREE DOWNLOAD banner Product AV'});ga('nT.send', 'event', {eventCategory: 'Antivirus Blog', eventAction: 'Download', eventLabel: 'Bottom FREE DOWNLOAD banner Product AV'});\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8604\" src=\"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Comodo-Free-Antivirus.png\" alt=\"comodo antivirus\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/secure.nurd.com\/home\/purchase.php?pid=109&#038;af=16166\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" onclick=\"ga('send', 'event', {eventCategory: 'Antivirus Blog', eventAction: 'Click', eventLabel: 'GET COMPLETE PROTECTION banner Product CIS Pro'});ga('nT.send', 'event', {eventCategory: 'Antivirus Blog', eventAction: 'Click', eventLabel: 'GET COMPLETE PROTECTION banner Product CIS Pro'});\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8604\" src=\"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/complete-antivirus.png\" alt=\"comodo antivirus\" width=\"650\" height=\"83\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/blog\/computer-safety\/wikipedia-taken-offline-massive-ddos-attack\/\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wikipedia Hacked by DDoS Attack<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/antivirus-for-windows-7\/\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">antivirus for windows 7<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/blog\/computer-safety\/best-antivirus-of-2019\/\" target=\"blank\">Best Antivirus<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/antivirus-for-android.php\" target=\"blank\">Antivirus for Android<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/virus-protection.php\" target=\"blank\">Virus Protection<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cwatch.comodo.com\/website-status-checker.php\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Website Status<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cwatch.comodo.com\/website-backup\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Website Backup<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Melissa is a macro virus that was wide-spread through a suspicious e-mail attachment in 1999. It was initially sent as a Microsoft Word file, which when clicked to open, emailed the malicious content to another 50 contacts of the victim\u2019s address book. It does not infect any of the files or any other computer resources, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[222,90,97],"class_list":["post-5074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comodo-news","tag-melissa-virus","tag-virus-protection","tag-virus-removal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Melissa Virus? | Their Working and How to Stay Protected<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is a Melissa Virus and its working explained here in this blog. Stay safe from virus and malware threats using Virus Protection of Comodo.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/blog\/comodo-news\/melissa-virus-stay-protected\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is Melissa Virus? | Their Working and How to Stay Protected\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is a Melissa Virus and its working explained here in this blog. 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