Not sure how long this virus as been around. One of the admins i work with just had to take his computer into the computer doctor to get it fixed because of this virus. First thing he noticed that started to play up or change were the icons on the desktop would change from the original ones to a copy of anything on the computer. Next thing he noticed was .jpg and .bmp files were changing to .txt or .pdf files. After about 3 days of this happening and running a number of programs to find the problem nothing could be found. The next thing he finds out was when he started his computer up it was like an auto-format button was hit.. He could see everything on his hard drive being wiped off..yes you got it, it hard a virtual hard drive of his on the screen. from what we were told the virus hit the bios and spread from there. so for god sake backup everything before this happens to you.. This person lost well over $1500 worth of work and also some coding he was working on for the game site we admin on.. DONT LET IT HAPPEN TO YOU...

another reason to use Firefox. Considering how much misery malware causes nowadays, you wonder why anyone would bother with viruses anymore..sorry to hear it.

Firefox rocks! Explorer is a borer.

pakled were did it say he got it trough internet explorer?

Whoa. That is seriously one of the spookiest things I've heard in a long time. Nasty virus, makes me wonder if it wasn't cooked up by some bored script kiddie or written by a real bad guy. Hugs Firefox

I just switched to Firefox several weeks ago after two of my systems were crippled by adware, hijackers, tickleware and a bunch of other *ware that I'd never heard of. I'm VERY well pleased. It's the best browser I've ever used. This is the first, however, that I've heard of anything this heinous that wasn't a hoax. And, quite honestly, I'm happy to hear others have had the same good experience with Firefox that I have. I will tell you that, with all the junk that was scripting other sites to open and doing various things, I had a boatload of porn show up on my system, and I'm just about sick of this sort of thing. If I want to go to porn sites, I'm a big boy; I can go there on my own. I don't need these various programs, adware, hijackers and tickleware loading my systems up with garbage. Spysweeper and Firefox, my friends. :)

nah..he didn't..it's just a vector. My apologies about the misunderstanding. I've just had several months with the missus' PC, and the things it does are almost as severe. however, it's actually the opposite..it prevents you from reformatting (gotta find the OS CD somewhere..)

Active X (or is it direct x?) controls embedded somewhere in the M$ OS can allow external scripting such as that within Flash to trigger them. Although flash & whatnot isn't supposed to be allowed to do anything bad in itself, it's these controls in the M$ that can be told to open the door and let in trouble. It's also how some sites seem to still have popups even with Firefox. So if you're on a Win OS based machine, even the Firefox might not protect you from that type of thing. Just something to watch out for. :s

It's also how some sites seem to still have popups even with Firefox.<< The popups that get by Firefox and show up are minimal and harmless. I get a few of them from time to time and never had a problem. Helen loving her FireFox

good news is guys and gals..his computer is up and running again. Bad news for those that use it..he was using Fire Fox when he got the virus, he stopped using IE 7 months ago.

Incredible, CD! I have never heard of such a thing and I've been using FF for 2 years now, exclusively. Can you tell us exactly which URL he went to that got him into all this trouble?

Ardiva, he can't recall it it was a site or if it was something he downloaded that placed the virus on the computer. What i would like to inform you all of is, no matter what browers or operating system you use if its a bios virus that gets on the system nothing will protect you from it. In my first year of being on the internet i got hit by one of the worsed virii at the time..the Chernobyl virus(CIH). At that time i ran two anti-virus programs. i got that virus from a well known download site, it pays to be careful.

That's a better warning CD, doesn't matter how secure you think you are, there's always someone a step ahead, but win has to be the worst set of OS's for it, partly because it's popular and therefore more targets are around, partly because it's poorly designed and partly through the corporations attitude which has upset thousands of programmers around the world.

Nasty stuff! The first part with the renamed files sounds like another virus ive heard of. It would rename all image files, mp3s etc and move everything to the C drive. Luckily, that virusmaker had at least some conscience, and the virus also left a textfile, descibing what changes it had made. Ive always used IE and never had any problems with it. One single virus during all these years. The best protections will always be a good, fresh antivirus, a firewall and most of all, cautiousness.

Thanks for the warning, my icons have also changed random. Its time for backup before its not to late.