VIRUS ALERT!!

R

Redzedfour

Veteran
 Land of the Prince Bishops
I got this emailed to me from work via our IT guy and this is a serious alert so i thought i'd give you guys a headsup :thumbsup:

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,'regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer.


This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.


If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! 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.


COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS.


REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US
 
I saw that one going around a few years ago....
I'm thinking it might be a Virus Hoax but at the same time you can't be too careful.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_postcard_virus.htm
 
Oh it's real alright!! Or at least one similar! I have spent a week trying to beat it on our network!! Not sure how it got in but it must have been a laptop! We have 3 servers and it killed 2 of them! Also killed 1 laptop and a desktop computer! Reformat is the only cure!! Virus seems to rename vital Windows registry files. The antivirus picks them up as a virus. Quarantines them then restart your computer and bang! Can't boot into windows! Seems to do a lot more also! One server couldnt see the hard drive!! Starts with ie windows opening up to various sites!

Doesn't seem to effect windows 7 though!
 
Yeah, cheers, had one of the guys at our firm get caught by the UPS tracking emails the other year, he was expecting a package to be delivered and didn't even stop to think, wham pc frazzled. So much time gets lost dealing with this crap i almost think it would be worth companies pooling funds to set up a hacker hacking team to crash the pc's of the idiots who do these things. Now there's a weird one for ya :)
 
Not this AGAIN!

I can't remember the amount of emails I've had regarding this in the last 4 years.

Any email you get should be treated with caution as a matter of course, and ones with images/attachments should be treated with an added layer of paranoia.

It's the social engineering / user stupidity that gets these 'viruses' injected when the user clicks the link to go to the trojan/malware/virus infested websites linked therein.

Whilst the 'postcard' virus is real (W32/Zhelatin.gen!eml), it doesn't do what the email claims, and you'd have to be a muppet to click the image/link AND be running the system with admin privileges AND have your AV/malware apps switched off to have it install via a 'drive-by' install on the website you get linked to.

The W32/Zhelatin.gen!eml virus is captured by almost 100% of the current crop of AV/malware apps out there (assuming you've got it switched on, and up to date), and even if you don't, it's WILL NOT do what it is claimed to do in the email.

I'd have assumed that with the amount of these emails going around, that any normal user would know that if the email claims any 'corporate' verification, then it is usually complete bull. If it has been verified by these corporations, then why is there no link (which would be a perfect opportunity to add another layer of legitimacy of course) to the verification from these companies. I'm just surprised that this one has not got the normal 'verified by Snopes' line in it.

BTW, I've been using Windows & Mac systems for over 20 years. I'm currently on a Mac, but also run 3 instances of Windows (1 x XP, 2 x W7), all with the latest version of MSE, and none of them have been infected by just receiving/opening the email (yes, I opened them on purpose to show a colleague how much bull there was in the scaremail)

I've NEVER had an infected system (that I own, as have had work laptops infected by stupid users), and I go to some dodgy places on the internet (in the name of research). I've had plenty of stuff sent to me that was infected though - usually dodgy downloads or MS Office files with the old macro virus in them which were sent to me to clean and return.

I used to spend a lot of spare time fixing lots of PCs owned by relatives, when it's come down to it I've usually found they've disabled/uninstalled some anti-virus/malware program because it wouldn't let their new smiley toolbar/free game/video coded download with it on. Now I simply refuse to help them unless they allow me to reconfigure their system so that they have basic user rights and they have to call me to install anything.
 
@mmm-five...thank f*ck for a common sense explanation. :thumbsup:

All the references to CNN (WTF?!), Microsoft and McAfee (admitting it can't fix a virus??) are already enough of a sign to anyone who is halfway IT literate...

Reminds me yet again why taking early retirement from IT was such a good idea LOL :rofl:
 
I just got one with subject "Unique & Unforgettable Mother's Day cards" from Hallmark in my spam. :rofl:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom