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

The Game of Catchup

[MightyMartian]

Had this one get on one the computers I administer. Managed to poison the profile and for a brief while I thought the files had been deleted. Of course, I got the inevitable "isn't your AV and anti-malware software up to date", to which I responded "As much as can be, the user is relied upon not to be a simpering moron who clicks on every possible link."

Oh, and by the way, Microsoft, your fucking browser still sucks and is still atrociously insecure. Shape up, Redmond.

Re:The Game of Catchup

[hairyfeet]

You forgot the third part...spend endless hours on the forums cursing because "update foo broke my (insert device) drivers!". Seriously someone needs to hunt down Torvalds and give that sucker a good ass kicking.

It is 2011 and he still acts like it is 1992 and the kernel is his personal playtoy. Every single decent OS, OSX, Windows, Solaris, BSD, hell even OS/2, has had driver level ABIs for a decade or more, yet Torvalds still refuses to allow this simple fix to keep from borking everything when he gets an itch to fuck with shit.

So I'm sorry but as a retailer that step three makes it so I'm unable to sell machines with your OS, or support your OS after the sale. The annual forum hunts just suck too much of my already limited time. Fix that and the whole "software tied to which kernel your using" mess and then I'll be happy to help your OS grow in numbers, but as it is now it is better to stick with Windows, even if the occasional user stupidity manages to get through the AV (usually because they tell the AV to allow it because the malware promises them some reward for doing so) than to have the guaranteed breakdown every six damned months for the life of the machine thanks to Torvalds and his kernel fucking.

Re:False alert

[LurkerXXX]

AND BACKUPS! *AND BACKUPS*!!!

RAID is *NOT* a substitution for backups. Delete a file on the RAID and it's gone. Someone takes the machine, and it's gone.

Backup your computer to offline media, and make sure to keep a (hopefully encrypted) copy of it at some remote location (like a family members house, work, wherever)

RAID IS NOT A SUBSTITUTION FOR BACKUPS!

Re:My end users say it was coming from MSNBC.com

[Mashiki]

And sites complain when people block ads. This is of course why anyone with a brain blocks ads.