[Vision2020] Bad Virus... Important to read...

Paul Rumelhart godshatter at yahoo.com
Mon Aug 6 08:52:52 PDT 2007


I haven't looked this up (I'm running late), but I have been getting 
these emails for a long time now.  I just junk them.

If this virus does overwrite sector 0, don't panic too much yet.  There 
are ways of getting it back.  It used to be the case that you could boot 
with a floppy and run "fdisk /mbr" to get the master boot record back.  
I don't know if that's still true.  Also, there are linux live cd 
distributions that have tools on them that can be used to diagnose your 
system and do some repairs.  One of them is called Helix, there might be 
more.  If you lose sector 0, you haven't lost your data since it's not 
written there.

I've always wondered why viruses are so lame in their effects.  Maybe 
this one will encourage people to ask questions about why it's so easy 
for this to happen on a supposedly "secure" OS.

Paul

Janesta wrote:
>
>     THIS WARNING HAS BEEN VERIFIED:
>
>     http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp
>
>     Please don't open any "greeting card" /"postcard from a relative"
>     e-mails unless you know who they're from.
>
>     I verified this at http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp
>
>     (last update 1 July 2007)
>
>     WORST VIRUS EVER --- CNN ANNOUNCED; PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERYONE
>     ON YOUR CONTACT LIST!!
>
>     A new virus has just been discovered that has be en classified by
>     Microsoft as the most destructive ever. This virus was discovered
>     by McAfee. This virus simply destroys Sector Zero from the hard
>     disk, where vital information for its functioning are stored.
>
>     This virus acts in the following manner:
>
>     It sends itself automatically to all contacts on your list with
>     the title:
>
>     "A Card for You" OR "POSTCARD FOR YOU".
>
>     As soon as the supposed virtual card is opened the computer
>     freezes so that the user has to reboot. When the ctrl+alt+ del
>     keys or the reset button are pressed, the virus destroys Sector
>     Zero, thus permanently destroying the hard disk. Yesterday in just
>     a few hours this virus caused panic in New York, according to news
>     broadcast by CNN.
>
>     This alert was received by an employee of Microsoft itself. So
>     don't open any mails with subject: "A Virtual Card for You." As
>     soon as you get the mail, delete it!! Even if you know the sender !!!
>
>     Please pass this mail to all of your friends. I'm sure most
>     people, like myself, would rather receive this notice 25
>     times than not at all.
>
>     Janesta
>
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