-=PCTechTalk=- Re: New Virus Infection
- From: The Keyboard Cowboy <KBCowboy@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: milady <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2005 11:12:37 -0500
You don't take that seriously??
Oh my!
d;^]
Regards from
Bob -- the "Keyboard Cowboy",
,,,,,,,,
Ô¿Ô¬
Cincinnati, Ohio - Scottsdale, Arizona
-----------------------------------------------
Saturday, 4/2/2005, @ 11:12:09 AM EST
-----------------------------------------------
It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover
ability in others is the true test.
-- Elbert Hubbard
==================|:o:|==================
On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 20:17:43 -0800, milady wrote:
| RIGHGHGHGHT... now let me go find that bottle of black peanut
| butter that is so popular but you can only use on sweet pea
| bread????...uh huh. ----- Original Message ----- From: "The
| Keyboard Cowboy" <KBCowboy@xxxxxxxxx> To: "PCTechTalk -
| Freelists" <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, April 01,
| 2005 7:22 PM Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- New Virus Infection
|
|
| Human Contact Spreads PC Viruses
| By A.C. Feafunnoll
| The federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National
| Science Foundation (NSF) have issued a stunning joint
| announcement: PC viruses, worms, and spyware can now be
| transmitted via human contact. Researchers at St. Paul's College
| in Virginia have isolated roughly 100 cases of systems infected
| by human contact, the two agencies said at a press conference
at
| NSF headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The mode of
| transmission? Each system's user had physical contact with
| another user whose system was known to be infected. The level of
| contact was found to be as brief as a handshake. One
researcher,
| Avril Hidokwon, said she documented a case where the Netsky.P
| virus spread to 12 systems via a sneeze.
|
| Scientists have long held that electronic viruses could not
| possibly spread unless there was some sort of digital (wired or
| wireless) connection between the infected PC and the victim
| systems (or the victim systems and servers). "What we did not
| account for," explained Hidokwon at the hastily organized joint
| press conference, "was nanotechnology." Apparently these PC
| viruses, Trojan horses, and pieces of spyware are not simply
| floating on air or clinging to people's hands; they're actually
| being transported via "nanobots" tiny robots that may be no
more
| than a molecule in size and are capable of carrying out simple
| instructions. There is already a cell- sized robot that can
walk
| on its own. But these virus bots are, according to the CDC's
Earl
| Leis, an accident. "We believe that the first infections
| originated in California," Leis explained. According to a
| statement handed out to journalists at the Arlington press
| conference, two scientists in Southern California, Daniel
Banner
| and Petrona Parker, reported in January that about 140,000
| nanobots that had been developed to deliver insulin to diabetics
| via the bloodstream had been lost in their lab. The NSF noted
the
| incident but did not report it to any other government body.
"We
| assumed," said the NSF's Charlene Crykit, "that the bots would
| simply run out of power and die. That, obviously, never
happened."
|
| The current theory holds that the bots affixed themselves to
| biohazardous material that was disposed of by the lab. Then,
| during California's recent rainstorms, the bots used the sewer
| systems to spread and, possibly, propagate.
|
| The NSF and CDC, however, are at a loss to figure out how the
| bots got from the sewers to computers. "One theory," said the
| CDC's Leis, "is that some runoff made it to the California
water-
| filtration plants and eventually got into the drinking supply."
| As for how the infected water made in into an infected PC, Leis
| theorizes that "someone accidentally spilled drinking water on
| his or her keyboard."
|
| "I'm not at all surprised," said PC industry watcher and
longtime
| PCMag.com columnist John C. Dvorak. "It was bound to happen. All
| of our
| systems are rife with spyware, and many, many of them have
hidden
| viruses." Dvorak even has a theory on how the infected nanobots
| got back out of the infected system and onto the first human
| carrier, "Some idiot burned a CD or DVD and then took it out of
| the &&^%*&!-up system. The %#&*! bots then went directly from
| the surface of the optical disk to some poor schlub's hands.
| Most of these idiots don't even bother to wash their hands
after
| using the bathroom. He probably wiped his hand right across his
| face and inhaled the suckers. The rest is history. Sheesh!" For
| now, the CDC and NSF believe that the outbreak is confined to
| Southern California, New Mexico, Utah, New York City, and
| Delaware. They're asking computer users in those states and
| municipalities to shut down all of their systems and servers for
| 72 hours. Trapped in the systems without any light, moisture, or
| electricity, the system-bots should die within 24 to 72 hours,
| the agencies said. As for bodily contact, users in the
afflicted
| areas should bathe themselves, family members, and even pets in
| kosher salt baths. That will make the bots gorge themselves on
| diluted salt and die within 26 minutes, say the California
| researchers who developed them. Companies in affected states
| should close down their offices, contact a haz-mat team, and
have
| them sweep for infections.
|
| For instructions on how you can decontaminate yourself and your
| PC and also avoid infection, go here:
|
| _http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1781206,00.asp_
| (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1781206,00.asp)
|
|
| Regards from
|
| Bob -- the "Keyboard Cowboy",
| ,,,,,,,,
| Ô¿Ô¬
| Cincinnati, Ohio - Scottsdale, Arizona
| -----------------------------------------------
| Friday, 4/1/2005, @ 10:17:34 PM EST
| -----------------------------------------------
| A man who thinks too much about his ancestors is like a
| potato?the best part of him is underground.
|
|
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