Virus or Hoax

[oxygen]

Hey all

I got this virus alert from a friend sayin

If someone with the email "aflino62@hotmail.com", do not accept as apparently it is "an advanced virus that will wipe all your files off your HD, including all important files/documents.".

Did ne of you hear bout this virus.....or is it a hoax? I did a search on it and apparently its been posted in many forums... but no one is sure bout this...

Is it possible to get infected just by adding a user to your buddy list....?

[nihil]

Watch out buddy!

That's the one that will open your fridge and drink your beer

If you accept e-mails from people you don't even know, you have not been paying much attention to this site's contents?

Adding someone to your "buddy list" will not give you a virus, as it is just an entry in an address book of sorts.

I am voting "hoax"

Cheers

[bpiedlow]

While I would think HOAX at first glance of this info, the one thing that does strike me as odd is that this warning has been posted on about a dozen differant securrity boards I visit.

When doing a quick search for the email address on yahoo I find that its also been posted on others including a few from other (non-english) speaking countries...

If it is a hoax, it is one of the fastest spreading hoaxes I've seen in awhile.

RRP

[i90t@dd]

I don't think there are viruses advanced enough yet to wipe out HD . But i am newb so i could be wrong. I read it in a book that was was written over a year ago. Is there anyone out there that knows this for sure?
I did read that most virus hoaxes claim they will "wipe all files off HD."

[groovicus]

A virus most definately can wipe your hard drive.....not that I am any expert. A virus can do pretty much anything the creator wants it to do.

[nihil]

If the payload was to format the hard drive that would screw most average users? Particularly if it reformatted NTFS to FAT32 and vice versa

Cheers

[moxnix]

Originally posted here by nihil
Watch out buddy!

That's the one that will open your fridge and drink your beer

I want one like that/.......I want to drink all of nihil's beer. Its better than mine (cause it is his....lol)
Seriously though, it is possible to cause the formating of someones drive, but what is the point. Most virus and worms are attempting to spread themselves, not distroy their hosts.

[groovicus]

You're right moxnix, but as was being discussed in another thread, if it infected 10 computers, then those 10 infected 10 more, then after x days it wiped your partition table, it would have accomplished it's goal, and more..

Sorry didn't mean to get this thread off track.

[|The|Specialist]

Originally posted here by i90t@dd
I don't think there are viruses advanced enough yet to wipe out HD . But i am newb so i could be wrong. I read it in a book that was was written over a year ago. Is there anyone out there that knows this for sure?
I did read that most virus hoaxes claim they will "wipe all files off HD."

Actually if all it did was delete a few files then no.... its not a virus its just plain ol' malware. However you could make a over-writer very easly. It overwrites the file with its own code... since there is replication it can be considered a virus. And then there are appenders which attach itself to other files.

[nihil]

In the old days we used to refer to total destruction viruses as "vandals", but I haven't seen that expression used for a while?

The scenario was: land-propagate-destroy. It was sort of self-sanitising, as it gave the victim plenty to think about other than to worry who else might have been infected? anyway it had destroyed the evidence in the process.