Postcard torch virus

Shut down your computer immediately. This virus has been classified by Microsoft as extremely destructive. McAfee discovered this virus yesterday. This virus destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

Its a Cyber World - - Explanation: According to this emailed warning, a virus is currently being distributed that will destroy the hard drive on the infected computer and has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.

However, the claims in the warning message are untrue. As explained later in the article, the warning is just a newer variant of older virus hoaxes that have circulated for several years. Some of these purport to be a postcard sent by a family member and include the word "postcard" in the subject line.

Recipients who click a link in these bogus emails can unknowingly install malware on their computers. However, this malware is designed to steal information and give hackers access to the infected computer and does not destroy or damage the computer's hard disk. Since the goal of the criminals responsible for distributing this malware is to hijack the infected computer for their own nefarious purposes, their intention is certainly not to make it useless by destroying the hard disk.

Regrettably, because "postcard" is mentioned in both the real malware email and the bogus warning, many recipients have mistakenly concluded that the misinformation contained in the hoax email is genuine. It is important to understand that the claims in the hoax email are in no way related to the real malware threat. Other than the reference to a postcard, the real malware threat and the fictional virus have nothing whatsoever in common.

Unfortunately, it seems that many recipients are clicking the link in the bogus email and, after a cursory glance at the article, falsely concluding that the information in the hoax email is factual. If they were to actually read the Snopes article properly, they would very quickly realize that the information in the hoax message is totally unrelated to the genuine malware threat.

Also, it was one of the more innovative attempts at trickery to appear in a long time: postcards. Yeah, I just got another one that McAfee and Norton missed. Web Found Win Norton detected it as W Q mm since December 29 » www. Doesn't detection depend on how quickly the company receives a copy of the malware and then adds it to its database?

The user has to update also or user's program won't detect. I got hit with a few of these myself. They got past my greylister too.

It gave me the motivation to install my email virus scanner back on my Linux box--the one that kept Netsky out a few years ago, it's back in business again! In the meantime, NOD32 took care of the emails that did come in. Good thing I renewed it yesterday. The ones that came into my Yahoo account aren't detected by Yahoo's Norton scanner though.

They must need to do a LiveUpdate, or IU update I've never received any bad stuff in my Inbox. I may have a look at the Bulk folder, though - it's up to messages at the moment Whay not just read your Email as plain text only? You can't get infected that way.

I submitted copies of both the ones I received to McAfee and they directed me to an extra. If you'd been reading carefully you would have noticed that I received this as an attachment. Plain text isn't going to save an unsuspecting user who opens the attachment. My mom got a few in her Yahoo Bulk Mail, though with slightly different payload names.

It's pretty much a given that anything that winds up there is either spam or viruses. Yahoo is pretty good about keeping that crap out of your inbox. Didn't open either one, just uploaded them to Jotti and McAfee. I'll never open an attachment from someone I don't know, and I'm pretty cautious about the ones I get from those I do know. I rarely get viruses in emails, and I got 3 of them. AVG caught it.

I see where you had Kaspersky scan it also. If Kaspersky says it's infected, it's infected!! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of Virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

Click Here to read what Snopes actually says. Click Here to read why you should never forward virus warnings on. Ali Brooks has awarded Dominic a Virtual Beer because "he is really