Last night I was talking on MSN, and it said that someone from here ((A friend... I'm not blaming him.)) wanted to send me a file titled "webcam_004". I clicked download, and then opened the file, and my computer instantly started to act funny. My mouse wasn't working properly and such, so I decided to reboot my computer. When I rebooted it, it went all the way to the Windows XP startup screen ((The screen with the little blue thing that moves from side to side)) and then rebooted itself over again. Now, every time I try to reboot, it reboots itself over and over and over again until I finally shut it off. I'm really frustrated... right now I'm typing this in class on a laptop... but I really need to figure out how to fix this! I was told that a few other people on here got it, too, so maybe you could help me. If it helps any, the icon of the picture was the MSDOS icon... ugh.

MSN Messenger mounted by fresh worm

Fungal harvester, zombie bot launched

By INQUIRER staff: Thursday 20 January 2005, 11:36

F-SECURE said there's a new worm in the wild which spreads itself using MSN Messenger.

The worm - called Bropia.A - disseminates itself by files claiming to be funny or lewd pictures with filenames such as love_me.pif, drunk_lol.pif and the like.

F-Secure said that contacts are harvested from client machines by snooping on MSN windows using Windows hooks.

The worm also throws backdoor software, a variant of Rbot, on infected machines. This copies itself as LEXPLORE.EXE The zombie logs keystrokes, harvests system information, and generally makes a nuisance of itself.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20825

Info here...



Detailed info on the virus here... http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/bropia_a.shtml

Ouch...

ugh! Stupid hackers...

Thank you! You've been more than helpful.

I read through all of the articles, but still cannot figure out how to get rid of it. I'd go in with norton and try to delete it, but my computer won't even boot up, so that's out of the question.

Do you have any idea how I can get rid of it?

Have you tried booting in Safe Mode? What AV do you use?

WOW...nothing is safe anymore. Thanx for the info...gonna keep an eye out for those and spread the word.

you know what?!
I was sent that file from canadain!
I declined, of course. Good damned thing i didn't accept!

If you have a legit Norton you should be able to do a virus scan before windows boots... at least I think you can with Norton...

But try Googling some links.

Yep, I tried booting in safe mode, and it does the same thing...
Pardon me for being completely clueless, but what do you mean by AV?

Anti Virus Program (do you have the cd also)

A new virus has just been discovered that has been classified by
Microsoft as the most destructive ever. This virus was discovered
yesterday afternoon by McAfee and no vaccine has yet been developed.
This virus simply destroys Sector Zero from the hard disk, where vital
information for its functioning are stored.
This virus acts in the following manner:
It sends itself automatically to all contacts on your list with the title:
"A Card for You".

As soon as the supposed virtual card is opened the computer freezes so
that the user has to reboot. When the ctrl+alt+del keys or the reset
button are pressed, the virus destroys Sector Zero, thus permanently
destroying the hard disk. Yesterday in just a few hours this virus
caused panic in New York, according to news broadcast by CNN.

This alert was received by an employee of Microsoft itself.
So don't open any mails with subject: "A Virtual Card for You." As
soon as you get the mail, delete it!! Even if you know the sender !!!

Thats the email I got aboot it...in other words...your screwed. Take your comp in to get fixed.

Its a 4 y/o hoax http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data...rd.for.you.html

Normally in this situation i would try booting up from your software disks, say you Windows XP disks, and try going over the old one with the new one. If this works, it should (with any luck) mean that the files that were corrupted so that Windows wouldnt open, have been reformatted. From there you should be able to open windows and go through the process as described on symantec.com....

Well my msn isn`t working properly at the moment and hasn`t for quite awhile so I barely ever go on it, so I`m safe!

if you cant get onto the system its self, then use your system restore cd's that came with your xp, if you do not have them i believe you can purchase a new set from microsoft, SYSTEM RESTORE PEOPLE REALLY WORKS

I'd just format it if that bug got on my computer...And boff: Thats for the info. Where exactly did you read that? Have a link? I'd like to let others know.

1/26/2005 3:56:29 PM ************@hotmail.com sends Webcam.pif
1/26/2005 3:57:32 PM You have failed to receive file "Webcam.pif" from *************@hotmail.com.

whew...was a close one. But I did get it. Randomly... :S

do not format your computer, formating is a last resort, do you really want to loose all your files and settings when all you have to do is maybe wait a week and a half for a set of system restore cds to get shipped out? i know i wouldnt