What is the wrost virus

[Cowz]

In PC land. haha

[Broni]

Homework?

[elxr06]

or you just curious?

[homer]

i think the worst by far is the misspelling virus. it seems as though Cowz has aquired it, but as far as i know it hasnt spred verry fare annd.......o krap....eye think i juust got et.

[Dusty]

I've been Googling for the wrost virus - not found any info on it yet

[Broni]

You didn't search well enough...hehehe
http://www.nikyonline.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=90&mode=threaded&pid=570

[file cleanup - saving space - attachment deleted by admin]

[Deerpark]

That's a hoax you've dug up there Broni.
http://www.sophos.com/security/hoaxes/virtualcard.html

When the ctrl+alt+ del keys or the reset
button are pressed, the virus destroys Sector Zero, thus permanently
destroying the hard disk

A virus can't destroy a hdd sector, it could at most overwrite it. If it overwrote the first sectors it would make your computer unable to boot but in most cases this could easily be repaired without any loss of data by reinstalling the boot loader.

Boot sector viruses are btw. probably the oldest type of virus and is all but extinct today.

I think the question about 'the worst virus' is impossible to answer without a more precise definition of worst.
To my knowledge, no virus have yet done any unrecoverable hardware damage. The only one that have come close was the Chernobyl virus that could wipe the BIOS on some motherboards. But even then the BIOS could simply be reflashed and the computer would be up and running again.
So if you by worst, mean most damage to a single computer the title will go to all the viruses that have tried to delete data. I'm guessing this is well over a 1000 viruses.

If you by worst mean the virus that have made the most damage in term of money (i.e. loss of revenue, productivity, cleanup and so on) the title probably belongs to the ILOVEYOU worm. (Which technically isn't a virus at all). It is estimated the total cost for businesses was upwards of 5 - 10 billion dollars.

[jerryheavyarms]

Hello Deerpark!

That's a hoax you've dug up there Broni.
http://www.sophos.com/security/hoaxes/virtualcard.html

When the ctrl+alt+ del keys or the reset
button are pressed, the virus destroys Sector Zero, thus permanently
destroying the hard disk

A virus can't destroy a hdd sector, it could at most overwrite it. If it overwrote the first sectors it would make your computer unable to boot but in most cases this could easily be repaired without any loss of data by reinstalling the boot loader.

Boot sector viruses are btw. probably the oldest type of virus and is all but extinct today.

I think the question about 'the worst virus' is impossible to answer without a more precise definition of worst.
To my knowledge, no virus have yet done any unrecoverable hardware damage. The only one that have come close was the Chernobyl virus that could wipe the BIOS on some motherboards. But even then the BIOS could simply be reflashed and the computer would be up and running again.
So if you by worst, mean most damage to a single computer the title will go to all the viruses that have tried to delete data. I'm guessing this is well over a 1000 viruses.

If you by worst mean the virus that have made the most damage in term of money (i.e. loss of revenue, productivity, cleanup and so on) the title probably belongs to the ILOVEYOU worm. (Which technically isn't a virus at all). It is estimated the total cost for businesses was upwards of 5 - 10 billion dollars.

What does the ILOVEYOU worm do to an infected computer? Where did it originated? And how did they counter it? Thanks!

[Deerpark]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILOVEYOU

What does the ILOVEYOU worm do to an infected computer?

It overwrote files such as pictures, documents and music with copies of it self.

Where did it originated?

It apparently originated from the Philippines and was written by a young computer student called Michael Buen.

And how did they counter it? Thanks!

The virus spread via email. The recipient of such an email was enticed into opening the mail and clicking the attached file (the actual worm) because it said "I love you" in the subject field of the mail. Once a user was infected the worm send I love you messages to all the  user's stored email contacts.  The worm created such huge volumes of emails that many large companies and governments had to shut down their email servers.
Shutting down email servers was step one in countering the worm since it prevented further spreading.
After that it was countered in the same way most malware is countered. Crafty individuals and Anti-virus vendors created software that could detect and remove the worm.

[Calum]

That's a hoax you've dug up there Broni.
http://www.sophos.com/security/hoaxes/virtualcard.html

That's the point I think . . . the title of that thread was also "wrost virus", and it was also a hoax.
That's called "humour"

[Deerpark]

Didn't catch the misspelling on the page Broni linked to... guess I should have clicked the image instead of following the link.
Well in case anyone comes by who is as dense as me it will at least be clarified that the wrost virus ever is indeed a hoax.

[jerryheavyarms]

Thank you very much, Deerpark!

[Cowz]

or you just curious?

Just curious

[Dusty]

You didn't search well enough...hehehe

I must refine the searches or research the fines   That's one gotcha I owe you.

[Broni]

I was just smiling at OP misspelling, I googled it, and it was the very first hit, that came up....