Whats The Worst Virus You Ever Got?

[Arras]

Wasn't really a virus but my computer shut down in the middle of a stupid Windows Update and it screwed up my BIOS so bad I had to restore it to factory settings. :/ Lost a lot of data...

I thought Windows updates couldn't touch the BIOS. Are you sure you aren't mistaking it with something else?

 

[nando]

Windows

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

I thought Windows updates couldn't touch the BIOS. are you sure you aren't mistaking it with something else?

He probably means when power went out on him during updates it corrupted some system files

 

[Its_just_Lou]

Wouldn't shock me those days "limewire" and "Kazaa" was top dog of file sharing but was rampant with viruses :/

Also w00t 100th post!

I remember 'Limewire', heh. Wife used to use that back when she went to school, about five years ago...

Also, congrats on the 100th - have three pints on me - OY!
(Actually, take just the one, please...best leave the others for me, for later...)

 

[DroRox]

He probably means when power went out on him during updates it corrupted some system files

Yeah, all I know is that I got blue screen of death saying something about an unstable BIOS when I turned it on afterwards... :/

 

[Par39]

I've never had any viruses get to doing damage, but have had some my AV catches... One came with a "buddy finder", and the old lappy booted MSN before AV, so it managed to get a new buddy before AV was on to stop it (got activated by running an .exe) . Was easy to remove once Daddy realised what it was and where it was hiding.

 

[Gahars]

McAfee Antivirus

At least, that's what McAfee Antivirus told me before it tried to delete itself.

 

[Originality]

The worst virus I've ever had...? A data miner that stole all my data and corrupted everything afterwards. Completely unrecoverable - had to scrap the HDD because format tools weren't working. Fortunately it only hit one of my 3 computers at the time, and it just happened to be my oldest one (with a 133Mhz CPU).

Since then I've had nothing more exciting than IM worms and rogue AVs. Never takes more than 10 minutes to kill anything I find, because my firewalls will keep out the bad stuff (and AV the common stuff).
And it's never my PC that catches them - always my brother's or my dad's...

 

[Deleted member 318366]

I saw/heard about this earlier on tv today, really off-topic i know but should i be worried? Should i disable java or just wing it and leave it alone?

 

[Rydian]

If infections that OTHER computers have caught counts... like some others here, I deal with fake AVs and browser-addon adware all the time (easily half of the jobs I get), but a few months ago I ran across this one Vista laptop that caught an infection that actually unregistered, modified the filesystem flags on, and then deleted the DLL files responsible for the windows update service, update checking/logging, and BITS... must have taken me a good two to three hours to figure out and fix the issues, and of course it was like 3 years behind on updates by the time I got to it.

I saw/heard about this earlier on tv today, really off-topic i know but should i be worried? Should i disable java or just wing it and leave it alone?

I'd disable it in the browser.

Sadly this isn't that uncommon, browser media/plugins are as much of a target as browsers themselves... but unfortunately with Java, there's been a lot of "don't give a fuck" from the developers (Sun/Oracle) and distributors (Fuck You for taking a few months to distribute a security patch, Apple) of Java specifically... so much that part of the reason that warning was given is that it looks like all the people in charge of Java really don't give a fuck anymore.

 

[Originality]

If infections that OTHER computers have caught counts... like some others here, I deal with fake AVs and browser-addon adware all the time (easily half of the jobs I get), but a few months ago I ran across this one Vista laptop that caught an infection that actually unregistered, modified the filesystem flags on, and then deleted the DLL files responsible for the windows update service, update checking/logging, and BITS... must have taken me a good two to three hours to figure out and fix the issues, and of course it was like 3 years behind on updates by the time I got to it.

I've come across a few variants of that, including one that systematically broke all the drivers relating to HIDs. Try fixing a computer that won't recognise any PS/USB keyboards or mice plugged in - even in safe mode...
Eventually fixed it by manually replacing the driver files using DOS. These days it'd be easier since you have linux boot discs.

 

[AceWarhead]

Worst virus?
Constant Windows Update reminders on a pirated OS.