Lessons from Love Crimes
Michael Erbschloe · Information Systems Security · 2001
In 1999 and 2000, virus attacks caused extensive damage that required eradicating viruses from enterprise servers and client machines and caused a loss of productivity on the part of millions of computer users. Computer Economics, Inc., a research firm in Carlsbad, California, conducted an economic impact analysis of the virus attacks. The 1999 attacks of Melissa and Explorer.zip combined with a rash of other less significant viruses caused $12.1 billion in damages and lost productivity. In 2000, the Love Bug and over 40 variants caused $8.7 billion in damages and lost productivity, bringing the mid-year 2000 economic impact of computer virus attacks to $12.3 billion.