New Malware Simulates Hard Drive Failure

An anonymous reader writes "A nasty strain of malware goes beyond mere sensational alerts, it makes it seem the user's hard drive is failing. It moves files from All Users and the current Windows user's profile into a temporary location, making it appear as though problems with the hard drive are causing files to disappear. It also disables a user's ability to change wallpaper images and sets registry keys to hide certain icons — giving the impression that programs are going missing as well. Of course, it's all done in an attempt to get people to buy the software that will fix it."

Comments

Hey buddy!

[MrEricSir]

Nice computer you got there. Would be a shame if anything were to happen to it. My buddy Vinny here, he sells "protection" against these kinds of problems. You pay every week, and there ain't gonna be no problems, capiche?

Re:Hey buddy!

[ozmanjusri]

what do you mean "Windows"?

"Windows" is a computer operating system used by many people, most often without the owner's permission.

Re:Hey buddy!

[Anonymous Coward]

that reminds me of a trick I used to play back in my mainframe days too. I'd just delete everything a user had in their directory. Man you should have seen the look on their faces. I'll never forget the feeling over power I experienced either....

False alert

[lucm]

A little while ago I was sure I had this malware on my computer. However the actual problem was worse: I had a Seagate hard drive.

There is an upside with Seagate products: they taught me the importance of using RAID and/or backups.

Re:The Game of Catchup

[Bacon Bits]

My relatives certainly seem to think they do.