VIRUS-L Digest Wednesday, 6 Mar 1996 Volume 9 : Issue 35 Today's Topics: Administrivia (ADMIN) Re: Flash BIOS viruses? (Fwd) Boza virus: knee-jerk media response more hazardous to wallet (from RISKS DIGEST 17.74) Re: Hard drive hardware write protection Re: Virus Damage Statistics Re: Student use of PCs Technicalities of scanning Email in multi-OS network?? Re: Hard drive hardware write protection Re: Mac Virus "FNDR ERIK" ?? (MAC) Re: Mac Virus "FNDR ERIK" ?? (MAC) Re: Mac Virus "FNDR ERIK" ?? (MAC) Macintosh Ram Virus?? (MAC) Re: Mac Virus "FNDR ERIK" ?? (MAC) Re: Aug, 27 1956 Virus? (MAC) Re: Aug, 27 1956 Virus? (MAC) Re: Aug, 27 1956 Virus? (MAC) Re: Effects of Word.Concept Virus? (MAC,WIN) WinWord.Nuclear (MAC,WIN) Wierd thing happens with McAfee when booting up (WIN95) Win95 calculator virus? (WIN95) Possible Virus!! (WIN95) McAfee 2.0 for Win95 "feature" (WIN95) Re: DOS Antivirus software under Windows? (WIN) Nov 17th virus (PC) Re: Divide overflow on floppy access (PC) F-PROT, Opinions? (PC) Mystery Virus(PC) Unknown virus (PC) Re: Problems accessing floppy drive (PC) Re: Wordperfect 6.1 Virus? (PC) Virus MATRIOSKA! Who knows it? (PC) Re: Divide overflow on floppy access (PC) Re: How to get rid of Stoned Empire Monkey virus (PC) keeper ck.777 need some help????? Please (PC) Re: PKZ300 Virus (PC) Found a virus on my HDD.. (PC) Podaj hasLo? (PC) Virus in Memory--sometimes (PC) Modem snag: Virus or NAV? (PC) Re: DOOM2 DEATH (PC) Re: Divide overflow on floppy access (PC) Re: Ripper and NYB (PC) VIRUS-L is a moderated, digested mail forum for discussing computer virus issues; comp.virus is a gatewayed and non-digested USENET counterpart. Discussions are not limited to any one hardware/software platform--diversity is welcomed. Contributions should be relevant, concise, polite, etc. (The complete set of posting guidelines is available by FTP on CS.UCR.EDU (IP number 138.23.169.133) or upon request.) Please sign submissions with your real name; anonymous postings will not be accepted. Information on accessing anti-virus, documentation, and back-issue archives is distributed periodically on the list. A FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) document and all of the back-issues are available at ftp://cs.ucr.edu/pub/virus-l. The current FAQ document is in a file called vlfaq200.txt. Administrative mail (e.g., comments or suggestions) should be sent to me at: n.fitzgerald@csc.canterbury.ac.nz. (Beer recipes should still be sent to Ken van Wyk at: krvw@mnsinc.com.) All submissions should be sent to: VIRUS-L@Lehigh.edu. Nick FitzGerald ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 18:00:50 +1300 (NZD) From: Nick FitzGerald Subject: Administrivia (ADMIN) X-Digest: Volume 9 : Issue 35 Sorry for the brief cessation in postings there--first the Virus-L subscriber list was trashed and then I had to wait while the Listserv software was changed over to v7.2. I am assured the new listserv s/w would not cause any problems but it didn't quite like all the headers as I had been sending to the earlier version. Please report anything "odd" you think may be relaetd to the listserv upgrade to my personal Email address (n.fitzgerald@csc.canterbury.ac.nz) rather than to the list. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Nick FitzGerald, PC Applications Consultant, CSC, Uni of Canterbury, N.Z. n.fitzgerald@csc.canterbury.ac.nz TEL:+64 3 364 2337, FAX:+64 3 364 2332 Virus-L/comp.virus moderator and FAQ maintainer PGP fingerprint = 2E 7D E9 0C DE 26 24 4F 1F 43 91 B9 C4 05 C9 83 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 04 Mar 1996 04:48:56 -0500 (EST) From: Oeyvind Pedersen Subject: Re: Flash BIOS viruses? X-Digest: Volume 9 : Issue 35 In article <0005.01I1X44CWLTKQKI9KO@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>, "Derek V. Giroulle" wrote: >Anyway that leads me to another question is there some kind of >flash-rom Bios backup/restore utility , if it still helps after an >infection ...? There is no such thing, As you can telle from the name, the BIOS does the "Basic Input/Output". If you wipe your Flash BIOS, it will act like another a motherboard with the BIOS ripped off the board. The only thing that works will be your power LED. Personnaly I think the whole idea of Flash BIOS on standard MB is a bad idea. (not talking about portables with lots of fancy powersaving features) It is an excuse for sending customers beta-versions of hardware. I've had to upgrade BIOS'es a few times, and I don't think that the process of updating the BIOS physically was such hard work. I spent much more time to realize that I needed the BIOS upgrade :-( The worst thing that could happen is that they agree on a "Universal Flash BIOS standard". Then people will start upgrading their BIOS when anything happens to their system. Then people will make shareware tools to make your customized BIOS. And people will ofcourse write viruses for them... -oep ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 04 Mar 1996 10:50:50 +0000 From: Otto Stolz Subject: (Fwd) Boza virus: knee-jerk media response more hazardous to wallet (from RISKS DIGEST 17.74) X-Digest: Volume 9 : Issue 35 - -- Forwarded mail from RISKS List Owner Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 15:46:29 -0600 (CST) From: Crypt Newsletter Subject: Boza virus: knee-jerk media response more hazardous to wallet Recently, the Associated Press newswire triggered another round of ridiculous computer virus alarms with a story on the Boza/Bizatch computer virus, an admittedly barely infectious parasite on Win95 executables. Attributed to the VLAD Australian virus-writing group, due to the equivalent of a computer underground press release embedded in the virus extolling VLAD members and their technical virtuosity vis-a-vis writing them, Associated Press reporter Sue Leeman issued a news brief and it echoed internationally. In a pattern of action and reaction that has become standard for many computer virus stories reported in the mainstream press, the Boza piece generated countless questions from on-line users who thought they were in danger from it, although realistically they were statistically more likely to be hit by an automobile than the virus in their lifetime. The original Associated Press attributed Sophos' Paul Ducklin saying the Boza virus wasn't on the loose, but most subsequent news stories and fragments derived from it, including copycat press releases from other vendors, stripped this from the original. The Associated Press story wound up being printed in toto or in fragments in countless newspapers around the country th