URGENT!!! EVERYONE PLEASE READ

Tachi

Tachi

Mushi-shi
I recieved this email at work:


BIG VIRUS COMING !!! PLEASE READ & FORWARD !!!
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp
Hi All, I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!
I checked Snopes (URL above:), and it is for real!! Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP. �PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!�
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.

Snopes lists all the names it could come in.



No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG
 
Although the Postcard virus is real, it isn't a "BIG VIRUS COMING" (it's already been around in multiple forms for a long time now), it will not "burn the whole hard disc" of your computer, CNN didn't classify it as the "worst virus" ever, and it doesn't arrive in messages bearing a subject line of 'Invitation.'
Click to expand...

Just thought I'd post that from snopes. The email you received is what might be called a "manual virus", admittedly by using Snopes (which only deals with the email in the last paragraph) they've been clever but please don't spread this email, all it does it hit spam filters the world over, and when missed causes techies like myself to roll our eyes at terms like "Burn your whole hard drive".

Yes, postcard styled viruses were popular....but even a MODERATELY decent email scanner will find them, and frankly you shouldn't be opening attachments from strange people anyway, let alone letting them lead you to random websites to download something that you then don't scan.
 
MrChom said:
Although the Postcard virus is real, it isn't a "BIG VIRUS COMING" (it's already been around in multiple forms for a long time now), it will not "burn the whole hard disc" of your computer, CNN didn't classify it as the "worst virus" ever, and it doesn't arrive in messages bearing a subject line of 'Invitation.'
Click to expand...

Just thought I'd post that from snopes. The email you received is what might be called a "manual virus", admittedly by using Snopes (which only deals with the email in the last paragraph) they've been clever but please don't spread this email, all it does it hit spam filters the world over, and when missed causes techies like myself to roll our eyes at terms like "Burn your whole hard drive".

Yes, postcard styled viruses were popular....but even a MODERATELY decent email scanner will find them, and frankly you shouldn't be opening attachments from strange people anyway, let alone letting them lead you to random websites to download something that you then don't scan.
Click to expand...

:lol: i do agree with you, and i hate spamming, but this time i thought i'd let people know just incase. but either way your right, anyone stupid enough to open emails from unknown senders sort of deserves it. (but wouldn't wish it on anyone)

if you think about what the warning says it says that if you find you have been sent the email then turn your computer off ASAP....erm that has no logical way of getting round the problem, just means you've turned your pc off, nothing more.

Just be careful people, there are some idiots out there who get thrills out of sending virus's out (believe me there fun for about 2 seconds and then you cant be bothered to track 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. "

XD why? UH OH THE EMAIL IS HERE TURN OFF THE COMPUTER AND GET INTO THE VIRUS SHELTER!
 
Chaz said:
Sweet. That's good to know Tachi. Whoever gets that virus though... Unlucky.
Click to expand...

guarenteed u'll get it then :D


but yeah, i've seen it a few times anyway, but i never trust anything with CNN in it

bloody americans
 
Pretty bad idea at forwarding it and sending it to everyone else. Don't you think the virus makers would know that this would happen and start making dupes of these but with virus's in?

It sounds like spam to be honest.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever!
Click to expand...

Then why has no one heard of it? If it was on cnn it would be flooded throughout the internet. This post is the first time I've seen it mentioned.

This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital Information is kept.
Click to expand...

I'm no computer genius, but since when is there "sectors" on your hard drive? And since when is there a "zero sector where all the vital information is kept"?

It sounds like this email was constructed by a old man who has no idea about computers; The "is your son a computer hacker?" author comes to mind :p.
 
Yagami said:
This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital Information is kept.
Click to expand...

I'm no computer genius, but since when is there "sectors" on your hard drive? And since when is there a "zero sector where all the vital information is kept"?

It sounds like this email was constructed by a old man who has no idea about computers; The "is your son a computer hacker?" author comes to mind :p.
Click to expand...

Well there is sectors on your hard drive but you would have to wipe out each and every single one of them to completely wipe out your hard drive as important data is duplicated in every sector. In other words I don't think its possible.

Even if you format your hard drive the data is actually still there and can be retrieved by someone in the know how.
 
Actually hard drives are divided into sectors, it's part of the fundamental nature of the File Access Table technology. If your hard drive wasn't in sectors then the likelihood is that every time you wanted a file your PC would have to read the whole drive to find it (like the old tape drives).

Incidentally it IS possible to nigh on brick a modern PC with an old DOS boot sector virus. Many of these viruses would simply put their code in the boot sector, and have a pointer to the end of the drive to get the real boot code...problem is that they were written with DOS in mind, and Windows XP writes data differently. Hence how a virus from the 80s managed to cripple my PC a while back. Easy enough to fix by formatting, but still a pain.

Anything talking about the zero sector of the disc is just fiddling with boot code, something Windows nowadays tries to prevent, and something that is USUALLY only possible by having a floppy disc/CD with a virus on in the machine at boot time. Like I said, not fatal....just one windows reinstall from a fix.
 
MrChom said:
Actually hard drives are divided into sectors, it's part of the fundamental nature of the File Access Table technology. If your hard drive wasn't in sectors then the likelihood is that every time you wanted a file your PC would have to read the whole drive to find it (like the old tape drives).

Incidentally it IS possible to nigh on brick a modern PC with an old DOS boot sector virus. Many of these viruses would simply put their code in the boot sector, and have a pointer to the end of the drive to get the real boot code...problem is that they were written with DOS in mind, and Windows XP writes data differently. Hence how a virus from the 80s managed to cripple my PC a while back. Easy enough to fix by formatting, but still a pain.

Anything talking about the zero sector of the disc is just fiddling with boot code, something Windows nowadays tries to prevent, and something that is USUALLY only possible by having a floppy disc/CD with a virus on in the machine at boot time. Like I said, not fatal....just one windows reinstall from a fix.
Click to expand...

Chom, Have you completed the computer A+ course to learn that much about sectors?
Thinking about it i might write a batchfile to counteract the "virus" and send it round.
It states norton internet security is looking into ways to fix the virus. but a batch file could stop the virus from affecting the harddrive in the first place.
 
Wouldn't common sense be the best thing to stop this virus? :p From the links in that article it doesn't sound like the be all end all that people were hyping the Millenium bug to be (those were fun times :lol: )
 
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