Which 1998 incident involved the release of the Melissa computer virus?

The 1998 incident involving the release of the Melissa computer virus was the Melissa virus incident.

Melissa appeared in March 1999, despite sometimes being remembered generally as a late-1990s incident. It spread through Microsoft Word documents distributed by email. When a recipient opened an infected document with macros enabled, the virus could send itself to addresses in the user’s Microsoft Outlook address book. The resulting volume of mail disrupted email systems at many organizations.

The malware was named Melissa after a Florida dancer, according to accounts of its creation. Its author, David Lee Smith, was arrested and later pleaded guilty to computer-related charges. The case became an important example of how social familiarity—an attachment apparently sent by a known contact—could amplify malicious code.

Melissa is often confused with the 2000 ILOVEYOU worm. Both spread through email and exploited user behavior, but they were separate incidents, used different filenames and code, and occurred about a year apart.