but this guy is probably just being a jackass

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In Russia the signature reads you!

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Okay so here's the situation, while on IRC somebody got my friends IP address and told her that they sent a virus to her computer. They claim that if she does not do as they say that they are going to destroy her computer so that it won't be usable again. Last I'd heard virus cannot damage hardware so I don't know of any way this could be done. My guess is that he's just trying to scare her so that she'll listen to him. But if anyones ever heard of a virus that could destroy a computer let me know. Thanks.

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Nah he's bullshitting you big time. You want to change your IP address, then either disconnect and reconnect on dial up, or plug your broadband modem out, wait 60 seconds and plug it back in. That should refresh your IP address. Oh - and it WOULD be a good idea for her to get a firewall.  

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Insert random signature here

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i heard of a virus which revs your hard drive to thousands of RPM, so hot that it melts. \o/

but this guy is probably just being a jackass

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Despite its third-place finish in the replication test, Skynet kicked some serious derriere on DestructoBench, finishing nearly 43% faster than the next competitor. This high score is related to several factors: every BMP file on the system is converted into a picture of the Abdominator, plus the default system sound gets changed to "It's not a TOO-mah." In addition, the MBR gets scrambled in such a way that if removal is attempted using a relatively dumb anti-virus tool, the hard-disk will spin up to 50,000RPM and essentially weld itself to death.

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Source

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In Russia the signature reads you!

The closes hit symantec finds is netsky which doesn't do what you descibed.

http://www.google.com/search?q=W32.Skynet&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&start=0&sa=N

Doesn't turn up anything legit at all. Except for the site you provided.

I'm sticking with my computer will shutdown from overheating before my hard drive welds itself together. Do you even know how much 50000rpm is? The fastest one on the market for consumers is 10000rpm.

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"The most abundant element in the universe is
hydrogen, then second is stupidity."-Harlan Ellison
"What good fortune for our governments that the
people do not think."-Hitler

    Oh, for the reformat, that does not always get rid of viruses.  Some viruses can install themselves to the MBR.  I've heard of some viruses that will infect components such as your videocard.

(Edited by sriehl at 4:44 pm on Jan. 18, 2005)

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