“Hey You! Your PC is scrap”

Trojan Whizz.A : Back to the future – Part 2

London, UK, March 2009: System error reports and collaborating computers: That the are the attacks of the old days. With the “warning” “Hey You! Your PC is scrap”, or whatever in the appropriate language the Trojan Whizz.A draws attention to itself and to the fact that it is present on the machine in question. This is a traditional piece of malware, which is based on a very old kind.

Like Panda Security had predicted for 2009 online criminals are using old variants of malware again. Beats me why but so it seems to be.

With the Trojan Whizz.A we are seeing, for the second time in this first quarter of 2009 such an example. It appears to be a definite case of “Back to the Future” going on here.

In the same ways as in days gone by Whizz.A reduces the usability of the PC in that it slows it down. An infection is therefore immediately noted. First of all the Trojan lets users know his presence with a message like the one mentioned in the header – or variants, depending on the language – and the user thus immediately has been alerted to the fact that he has become the victim of an attack. This is then followed by an audio alarm emanating from the PC speakers.

The cursor too no longer remains stationary by is all over the show and the keyboards becomes basically unusable.

The Trojan also opens the CD/DVD player and the monitor is filled slowly in steps with red bars until nothing is visible anymore. In addition to that the PC can no longer be started up in the safe mode.

More information as to how to find and remove this virus you can find here: http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/security-info/about-malware/encyclopedia/overview.aspx?lst=sol&idvirus=206552&sitepanda=particulares

As said above, I have no idea as to why the cyber-criminals are resorting, once again, to attacks with malware such as this Trojan as they cannot, in effect, use it to achieve anything. With the exception, that is, of causing havoc, and maybe it is that what they are trying too do.

© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
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