Nasty Virus In Circulation! Take Care!

Elk Cloner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Elk Cloner is one of the first known microcomputer viruses that spread "in the wild," i.e., outside the computer system or lab in which it was written. It was written around 1982 by a 15-year-old high school student named Rich Skrenta for Apple II systems."

When you come right down to it, the whole thing is Apple's fault.

And while it's really hard to find references to it, I recall an actual Apple O/S update in the 1980s that arrived from the manufacturer complete with a virus - written by Apple employees - that replicated across floppies to infect as many computers as possible. On some holiday... I believe New Years' Day... it provided a fireworks display rather than, you know, letting people use the computer. There were public apologies made in the trade media, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers it.

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DogScout

14 years ago

Originally Posted by CDarklock

Elk Cloner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Elk Cloner is one of the first known microcomputer viruses that spread "in the wild," i.e., outside the computer system or lab in which it was written. It was written around 1982 by a 15-year-old high school student named Rich Skrenta for Apple II systems."

When you come right down to it, the whole thing is Apple's fault.

And while it's really hard to find references to it, I recall an actual Apple O/S update in the 1980s that arrived from the manufacturer complete with a virus - written by Apple employees - that replicated across floppies to infect as many computers as possible. On some holiday... I believe New Years' Day... it provided a fireworks display rather than, you know, letting people use the computer. There were public apologies made in the trade media, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers it.

I remember, last Mac I ever owned. Have never got a virus/Trojan with MS. (Of course now that I have said that, I am doomed!)

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sandra.IMqueen 14 years ago

wow , that's the exact problem I am facing on a couple of my pcs. I think may be this is the one. I checked with norton and avg, but nothing popped up. I guess i should install fresh windows on them. Thanks for the heads up.
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whateverpedia

14 years ago

Originally Posted by CDarklock

Elk Cloner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Elk Cloner is one of the first known microcomputer viruses that spread "in the wild," i.e., outside the computer system or lab in which it was written. It was written around 1982 by a 15-year-old high school student named Rich Skrenta for Apple II systems."

When you come right down to it, the whole thing is Apple's fault.

And while it's really hard to find references to it, I recall an actual Apple O/S update in the 1980s that arrived from the manufacturer complete with a virus - written by Apple employees - that replicated across floppies to infect as many computers as possible. On some holiday... I believe New Years' Day... it provided a fireworks display rather than, you know, letting people use the computer. There were public apologies made in the trade media, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers it.

I remember that one - it was called Happy 1999 from memory.

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jirimajkus 14 years ago

Thank you for warning.

Jiri
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Sheldon Slononazinski

14 years ago

Originally Posted by CDarklock

And while it's really hard to find references to it, I recall an actual Apple O/S update in the 1980s that arrived from the manufacturer complete with a virus - written by Apple employees - that replicated across floppies to infect as many computers as possible. On some holiday... I believe New Years' Day... it provided a fireworks display rather than, you know, letting people use the computer. There were public apologies made in the trade media, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers it.

Is this what you mean?
Chapter 8 MacMag
I was coding some Amiga software back then and I remember this happening to all my Apple friends. I forget why but some Apple system disks were suspected. Maybe infected before being shipped or something.
Don't want to hijack the thread but it's a freaky story I hadn't thought about in almost 20 years.
Thanks for the memories

Thanks

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R.Rapp

14 years ago

Originally Posted by CDarklock

Elk Cloner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Elk Cloner is one of the first known microcomputer viruses that spread "in the wild," i.e., outside the computer system or lab in which it was written. It was written around 1982 by a 15-year-old high school student named Rich Skrenta for Apple II systems."

When you come right down to it, the whole thing is Apple's fault.

And while it's really hard to find references to it, I recall an actual Apple O/S update in the 1980s that arrived from the manufacturer complete with a virus - written by Apple employees - that replicated across floppies to infect as many computers as possible. On some holiday... I believe New Years' Day... it provided a fireworks display rather than, you know, letting people use the computer. There were public apologies made in the trade media, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers it.

That's gold. I am so telling that story to my friends.

Also thank you OP for the warning!

WTF would someone do this, I really don't get it. I know the obvious answer "they don't care" I guess I just don't understand how people can be so ruthless. How can you sleep at night after having such an evil day?

Thanks

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Marhelper 14 years ago

Originally Posted by butters

It makes me happy I own a mac

I am with you ... no worries.
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Will Edwards 14 years ago

Originally Posted by butters

It makes me happy I own a mac

... but, of course, if everyone owned a Mac, you would need a PC
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opportunites 14 years ago

Originally Posted by butters

It makes me happy I own a mac

You will be surprise to know these guys are starting to make virus for mac...
Kaspersky already starting to sell anti-virus for mac!

visit their website!
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- Ehanson 14 years ago
  
  Yeah, even though Mac tends not to get infected with as many viruses as Windows the number of Mac viruses is increasing.
  
  Everyone needs be careful when browsing around the net, my computer was infected by two nasty viruses in 3 years- both times the only answer was to reinstall Windows. Not fun, especially when you work online.
  
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MikeHumphreys 14 years ago

Originally Posted by butters

It makes me happy I own a mac

Hackers would rather aim at the 90% of the market which are PC users.

My computer tech guy told me a long time ago that Macs can and do get hit by viruses too.
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Roy Carter

14 years ago

Forewarned is forearmed.

Thanks for letting us know Jack and sorry to hear it got you.

(

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rosetrees 14 years ago

That link activates my antivirus and says it is infected with a trojan. Be careful.
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Dennis Gaskill 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Roy Carter

Forewarned is forearmed.

Thanks for letting us know Jack and sorry to hear it got you.

Does that mean if we weren't warned, we wouldn't have any forearms? :rolleyes:
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Riz

14 years ago

Thanks for the warning bro.

Riz

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BastianMann

14 years ago

Sounds like a typical Spammail Bot, only worse (what to do if you can't even boot your system).

I think as an IM, you have to get a Mac...

Regards,
Bastian Mann

Thanks

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JonMills

14 years ago

Thanks Jack

I cant understand why those idiots create them. Everyone gets screwed in the end.

Downside is that norton rarely comes up with a solution until its too late.

Reminds me I better update my virus software

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JackPowers

14 years ago

Originally Posted by JonMills

Thanks Jack

I cant understand why those idiots create them. Everyone gets screwed in the end.

Downside is that norton rarely comes up with a solution until its too late.

Reminds me I better update my virus software

It's not just childsplay. As far as I understand it's very easy to get infected and the virus then manipulates google searches in Internet Explorer. Clever stuff in the way it spreads.

Thanks

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CDarklock 14 years ago

Originally Posted by JonMills

I cant understand why those idiots create them. Everyone gets screwed in the end.

Most virus code has two authors.

The deep-magic guy who solved the puzzle of how to get the code into your machine.

And the payload guy who added the nasty crap that messes everything up.

The deep-magic guy is like Wernher von Braun. He doesn't care what you do with the code. He doesn't ask questions. All he does is say "yes, I can make a program that executes as admin on Vista without generating a UAC prompt." And then he does, and he gets paid.

Just like a coder here might say "yes, I can write you an iframe that sets a cookie from a different domain on the user's machine without generating a warning." Are you cookie stuffing in violation of some CPA network's TOS? Mmmmmmaybe. Does he care? No. He just does as he's told, and he gets paid.

And once he does his job, any idiot can go in and wire up whatever code he wants inside it, and the perfectly harmless and elegant solution to the problem becomes a nasty piece of work indeed.

Yes, I used to be one of those deep-magic guys creating harmless and elegant solutions to problems. And then there was... an incident. So I don't do that anymore.
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"The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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opportunites

14 years ago

Thank you man!

I appreciate it, I will pay attention!

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Emily Meeks

14 years ago

The past few days Microsoft Outlook keeps popping up and wants to set up an email account, then when it won't go away I'll press CTRL-ALT-DEL and find like 30 apps of it open and running... is that the same thing?

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Troy_Phillips

14 years ago

Yeah...something like that got me today .

Can,t even boot through safe mode .

Now using a lap top with a dinky little 17 inch screen ad paying my tech guy $75 an hour to reclaim anything he can on my main system.

Then time for a fresh new windows .

Hey what can I say .. life is not easy when you fat and greazy

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JackPowers

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Troy_Phillips

Yeah...something like that got me today .

Can,t even boot through safe mode .

Now using a lap top with a dinky little 17 inch screen ad paying my tech guy $75 an hour to reclaim anything he can on my main system.

Then time for a fresh new windows .

Hey what can I say .. life is not easy when you fat and greazy

Sorry to hear that Troy. If it's the same virus as I got, you can possibly remove it by using the script that I link to. Worked for most of my sites.

Thanks

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Taylor French

14 years ago

Yeah, one of these days Mac users aren't going to be so smug. The more people who keep posting, "Not worried, I don't own a Mac", the more tempting it's going to be for programmers to write malware specifically for them.

Keep it up, Mac users. You just might be causing your own problems down the line.

Thanks

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mywebwork

14 years ago

Originally Posted by butters

It makes me happy I own a mac

Originally Posted by Marhelper

I am with you ... no worries.

Originally Posted by Will Edwards

... but, of course, if everyone owned a Mac, you would need a PC

Originally Posted by JackPowers

There's a very nasty virus running around the internet attacking both computers and websites...
<script>/*GNU GPL*/ try{window.onload = function(){var

Guys, read the OP and visit the link - this is a virus that attacks LINUX Web servers!

From the site that Jack links to:

It attacks any webpage that it finds on your server that meet the following criteria:
webpage name - index* / default* or *.js

It make no difference if you use a PC or Mac, this is attacking your LINUX web host. If you think that owing a Mac makes you immune to this you're wrong. And that false security could cost you time and money - and if you don't have a current site backup you'd be starting from scratch.

Considering the files that this can affect everyone on this forum who owns a website is at risk, even if they turn their computer off and disconnect the Ethernet cable!

Thanks for the heads-up Jack, I'm doing site backups on all my web servers. I suggest everyone else do the same.

Bill

Thanks
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xiaophil 14 years ago

Originally Posted by mywebwork

Guys, read the OP and visit the link - this is a virus that attacks LINUX Web servers!

Well now, is that really accurate? If you consider an 'attack' to be logging in normally using your ftp username and password then sure.

AFAIK The real attack and breach occurs on windows machines via PDF and Flash exploits i.e your Windows PC is compromised and ftp login details stolen (amongst other things), and then the servers are logged into normally.

If that's the case then it's hardly a server-side problem - it's a Windows/IE/PDF/Flash problem, just like usual.

Phil
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Lady

14 years ago

Sorry Jack that this happen to you, but thank you for warning the rest of us.

Thanks

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Best Wishes Lee

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paulie888

14 years ago

This Mac vs. PC thing really has nothing to do with which platform is superior, it's more of a "what is the most damage I can cause?" type of question! Since over 90% of the world's computers are running Windows, the answer is obvious...they'll continue to develop lots of nasty viruses for the PC because they know how much mayhem and havoc they can cause in comparison to any Mac virus!

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King Shiloh

Banned 14 years ago

My friend has been receiving series of mails with ambiguous links from some unknown Chinese firms or whoever.

I think the viruses are spread via such spam mails. Don't click on any link you don't understand, especially those sent to your email box.

Don't click on pop-ups or online adverts that look suspicious.

Thanks

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Nasty Virus In Circulation! Take Care!

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