Author: Anthony Boynes
Date: 06:25:27 11/12/00
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The Bymer virus is legitimate: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.hllw.bymer.html However, the message you were sent does not appear to be about a real virus. The bit about the power switch is not plausible. And catch it via the Internet??? How vague can you get. Would that be via email, a trojan horse program, IRC, or what? I would treat this as a hoax until some real information shows up. Giving out bad information is just as bad as spreading a virus, in my opinion. On November 12, 2000 at 08:48:50, Frederic Friedel wrote: >I have received the following warning from a colleague. He is extremely computer >literate, so we can be sure this is not a hoax. However I can find nothing about >this or the "Bymer" virus. Does anyone know more? > >------------------ >Dear Fred, > >I have been attacked by a nasty Internet virus. I am not sure where it came >from. It seems to be a version of the Bymer virus. > >You catch it via the Internet. The most obvious symptom is that your computer >keeps trying to log on to the Internet (if you have it set up to log on without >manual confirmation, then bad luck). > >Examination of the registry revealed an odd entry referring to a file >wininit.exe, which was set to load at Start-Up (note that this does not appear >in the Start-Up folder, only in the registry). > >I went to the Start-Up diagnostics in System Information and found an alien >entry there, again referring to wininit.exe. I removed this entry, but this did >not cure the problem. Going to the diagnostics again revealed that the virus had >replaced its entry there. I then manually deleted wininit.exe and a few others >files which seemed to be activated by it. The virus didn't like this and took >retaliatory action. When I rebooted the computer I got to 'Starting Windows >98...' and an instant later the screen filled with gibberish and the power to >the computer went off (aren't these software-controlled power switches >wonderful). The next problem is that pressing the on-off switch didn't restart >the computer - I actually had to unplug it from the wall! It was even impossible >to boot into safe mode as the power cut-off came first. > >Finally, I rebooted the computer from a floppy, reinstalled Windows and now >everything seems OK. I have just ordered some firewall software.
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