-=> Quoting Ben Sansing to Peter Balkan <=-
 PB> For the second time in 6 months, my wife has brought home a computer
 PB> virus from Arizona State University.  This one is called DA'BOYS (the
 PB> last one was STEALTH-C).
 BS> What - if anything - does this virus *do* to an infected system (aside
 BS> from  spreading itself)?
I don't know what DA'BOYS does but since it is a boot sector virus like
STEALTH-C, I would imagine it does the same thing.
STEALTH-C infected the boot sector of the hard drive and of each floppy
to which it spread.  The first hint I had was when my wife lost the data
on several floppies.  I assumed that either the floppies were getting
old or that my drive was bad.  I replaced the drive.
Finally, one day, she called me and said that she couldn't get the
computer to boot.  The virus apparently erases the entire boot sector of
the hard drive causing a total loss of data.  The drive must then be
reformatted, partitioned and the data loaded again.
I did have a tape back-up but it was so slow that I had neglected to do
a back-up for several months.  I was able to restore most of my data but
I did lose those last months.  I do not know why the virus waits the
amount of time it does before it strikes, nor do I know what the trigger
is.  It could be a set period after it infects or something else.
Since it effects the boot sector it appears harder to detect.  In any
event, it was not detected by the Microsoft programs or by the McAfee
Windows programs (this was in the Winter of 1996 so this problem may
have been resolved with subsequent versions).
Peter.Balkan@twb.com
(602) 253-5415
... New Taglines!!!!  Old ones wiped out by "Stealth-C!"
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