Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:39 am
Red Alert?
As the adventist of the frontole of computer security, i bring you the latest questionable email that i have the distaste of recieving.
now, i may be simply a sceptic, but this looks pretty anarchic to me. judging by my previous andcurrent knowledge of HDD sectors, Sector 0 holds the FA Table. destruction of that sector's data, as far as i am aware, would not cripple a HDD, reformat it or re-partition it and it lives. unless it is referring to PHYSICAL destruction of the disk, in which case targeting Sector 0 would be pretty useless, any sector would do. and if your looking to cripple the drive data, annihilating the FAT would do a bit of damage, but corrupting it would be better, and even better would be targeting Sector 1 (the Partition Table and Master Boot Record) for corruption.
What really tops it off, is that the article refrences CNN. now, i looked at CNN, expecting to see some Virus headline, but no, i see a 'race' headline, and even under technology, the top news story is that Spam costs $22 billion a year. nothing about a virus....
The only legitemate link is the website link at the end of the massage...
oh, a plumbing firm... how on earth did they find out first?
Opinions?
PS- sorry about post length
taw- Thats no moon, its a space station
freighter fighter- no, i think you will find it is the moon
Arania - Flys in a friggin' giant paper airplane.
- Aravis
The Phoenix
>Subject: Fw: PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING AND TAKE NOTE!!
> WORST VIRUS EVER ---CNN ANNOUNCED
> >
> >PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST!!
> >
> > A new virus has just been discovered that has been classified by
>Microsoft as the most destructive ever. This virus was discovered
>yesterday afternoon by McAfee and no vaccine has yet been developed.
>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".
> >
> > 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.
> >
> > Forward this to everyone in your address book. I'm sure most people,
>like myself, would rather receive this notice 25 times than not at All
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Treloar Group Pty Limited
> >
> > Stephen N Penfold
> >
> > IT Systems Administrator
> >
> > Phone: +61 2 4931 8531 (Direct)
> >
> > Email: [email protected]
> >
> > Web: www.treloar.com.au
> >
>
now, i may be simply a sceptic, but this looks pretty anarchic to me. judging by my previous andcurrent knowledge of HDD sectors, Sector 0 holds the FA Table. destruction of that sector's data, as far as i am aware, would not cripple a HDD, reformat it or re-partition it and it lives. unless it is referring to PHYSICAL destruction of the disk, in which case targeting Sector 0 would be pretty useless, any sector would do. and if your looking to cripple the drive data, annihilating the FAT would do a bit of damage, but corrupting it would be better, and even better would be targeting Sector 1 (the Partition Table and Master Boot Record) for corruption.
What really tops it off, is that the article refrences CNN. now, i looked at CNN, expecting to see some Virus headline, but no, i see a 'race' headline, and even under technology, the top news story is that Spam costs $22 billion a year. nothing about a virus....
The only legitemate link is the website link at the end of the massage...
oh, a plumbing firm... how on earth did they find out first?
Opinions?
PS- sorry about post length
taw- Thats no moon, its a space station
freighter fighter- no, i think you will find it is the moon
Arania - Flys in a friggin' giant paper airplane.
- Aravis
The Phoenix
) using the $22 some odd million us dollars her dad left her i fell out of my chair laughing and deleted it, i also set it so that any more emails from that "person" get deleted on arrival thats all it takes