Slashdot Mirror
New Malware Wiping Data On Computers In Iran
L3sPau1 writes "Iran's computer emergency response team is reporting new malware targeting computers in the country that is wiping data from partitions D through I. It is set to launch on only particular dates. 'Clearly, the attacker was trying to think ahead. After trying to delete all the files on a particular partition the malware runs chkdsk on said partition. I assume the attacker is trying to make the loss of all files look like a software or hardware failure. Next to these BAT2EXE files there's also a 16-bit SLEEP file, which is not malicious. 16-bit files don't actually run on 64-bit versions of Windows. This immediately gives away the malware's presence on a x64 machine.' While there has been other data-wiping malware targeting Iran and other Middle East countries such as Wiper and Shamoon, researchers said there is no immediate connection."
wiping data from partitions D through I
Thank God I hid all my porn on C drive!
The old drone shaped USB drive trick always works!
" Iran switches operations to Linux to evade these viruses."
You mean 2013 is the year of Linux on Iranian desktops?
Why do I picture a guy frantically photoshopping Windows Explorer screenshots to show that there's still data on the D drive?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Why don't you just let people fuck up their own spreadsheets the old fashioned way - through stupidity and laziness? Why does every task need to be automated?
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Indeed - I remember nearly 20 years ago the categories of damage that a computer virus could do:
Wiping the hard disk = "Minor" (if you have a backup, then recover from the backup)
Random bit swaps in data files = "Catastrophic" (undetected for long enough that even on a long backup cycle, they are all infected. Worse than that, subtly corrupted files are far harder to correct than merely deleted ones)
"She's furniture with a pulse"