Judas

So there this new virus floating about.... sometimes it shows up acting like one of those fake things.... another time it just seems to attack your email or skype/msn/whatever your using for a messenger service including trillian.

Now typically we see a whole lot of people with "windows" OSes being targeted.... and sometimes it's difficult to get hit with one on linux..

But i just saw my first MAC OS virus do some pretty hefty damage resulting in the customer well... being a bit worried and frantic (was doing year end books, appears to have lost everything with NO backups... ironically due to thinking that MAC OS was unable to ever get viruses.... *SIGH*)...

Not being a MAC OS pro.... i only could google a few little things here and there, but the general gist of it all, wipe and reinstall/factory restore it and forget your files.. they are either corrupt or gone.

Typically i don't see many viruses that delete files, but just hide them/make them read only... or disable a lot of the display/options...

But i tried the few things i could find reference to trying to unhide or transfer the contents of whatever should be in a folder to a flash drive and then plug it into a computer to see if i got anything. Short of it, I failed miserably due either there being nothing or i just don't know mac OS good enough to even stagger/fumble my way through it. But the general consensus on the internet for this same issue doesn't look like what I've tried would matter.

I couldn't get any information on what type of virus.. name.... theres a bunch of things being said out there.

I know under windows the last one would completely sidestep all the known antivirus, didn't matter if it was nod32/avg/norton/mcafee/avast/kapersky/etc and so forth, and malwarebytes/superantispyware/hijackthis and numerous other tools would detect parts of it, but then fail to remove it resulting in a system restart putting you back to square 1.

The only thing i have seen prevent this bug from getting an iron grip hold on the windows OS.. is due to UAC being present and set at the maximum value in windows 7.. and simply enabled in vista..... Although some people have reported REPEATED UAC prompts until they shutdown the computer and restarted in safe mode to try and manually locate and remove the infected file that is being stuborn.

All i could suggest to the customer is take it to an apple store.... unfortunately nothing is remotely near by, and she doesn't feel like paying an apple guy a few hundred dollars just to tell them they are ed.

I said if they wanted, for the fee i usually charge for a complete windows install, i could install bootcamp and get them running on windows.... they said they'd think about it as they weren't pleased with the fact that most of the things they wanted to run wouldn't work under mac os.....

And i had to lol a bit when they asked if apple might fix it under warranty.... yeah that isn't going to happen.

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