The most expensive computer virus in history is the Love Bug infection, which was released in 2000. This virus triggered an estimated $5.5 billion in damage worldwide, making it the most expensive infection ever. The Love Bug virus was a mass-mailing worm that contaminated over 45 million computers in just a few days. The infection spread rapidly by emailing itself to everybody in the victim's address book. When a computer system was contaminated, the virus would delete crucial files and spread itself to other computers. The Love Bug infection was eventually dropped in a group of anti-virus scientists who developed a vaccine that might secure computers from the virus. This Site