Remaining dormant for quite a while, it strikes first by creating a fake directory on the flash drive. You will notice a whole list of shortcuts that you did not create. Eventually, the virus renames all your other removable devices as “PENDRIVE” and causes a slowdown to disk access and eventually no access.I spent five hours trying to cure this virus, for it sails right past all known anti-virus programs. (Yes, viruses can be cured without an anti-virus program. Tell you what, why don’t you ask that whiz-kid you always brag about how this is done. Then you'll find out what a blank stare looks like.) The above photo is part of the process. The nasty file, “autorun.inf” is hidden in DOS and superhidden in Explorer, thanks MicroSoft. You can’t see it.
Here you see me peeling back the layers, note the command “attrib –r –a –s –h *.*” which disables the hidden archive bit. You must be in command mode to use these DOS-like commands. Now, for some reason, flash drive manufacturers also won’t let you see all the files on the flash drive, but you can see how I was able to display the autorun.inf at 06:35 PM y’day, and I know the virus well, it is 348 bytes long. It is a script that calls embedded commands in your registry based on the file “hel.exe”.
I wonder how many perfectly good flash drives have been thrown out because of this virus. I found it on every computer in the public library. The staff there were unaware that such a virus existed. They kept re-installing the opsys (operating system) only to have the computer re-infected when the next pen drive was plugged in. Anyway, now you know how to kill the virus without buying a program to do it for you. Eighty dollars, please.
That is where I spent the remaining four hours and fifty minutes. You cannot delete, move, rename, over-format, edit or by any method known to me and mankind get rid of that file. Notice nothing else is even on my F: drive, I made backups and completely formatted this drive in DOS. I even tried a few commercial data shredders. Yet the virus reappears whenever the drive is reconnected. Thus it is hidden in some directory accessed only by the flash drive manufacturer and the virus (because it remembered I had renamed the volume “BLACKFLASH”.)
And that is where I will focus my next level of investigation. How was your day?
Next, my pension is underway. It involved signing a one-page form and a five minute phone call to confirm everything. That is efficiency. Those who follow this blog know that I have often said how I trusted my old union above all government and private sources. The union is strange and antiquated, but real people answer the phone on the second ring and the union is totally, totally on my side. They said my payouts could begin as soon as April 1, two weeks from now. There is one potential snag in that Washington, my home state, may require a 90-day waiting period to assure I have nothing like late child support payments and such. I do not.
Either way, it is time to move on and let whoever will be clever. Others can then be free to mastermind their own fates. I've honored every commitment I've made and then some.
Author's note: this use of computers to check into people's backgrounds does, I think, explain most of the resistance you get from "old people" who do not like computers. They are old enough to understand the information being gathered about them can only be used for purposes such as using a pension application for check for child support. I am on their side.
While I do agree that people should pay their child support, I do not agree that whether they do or not is any business of their pension plan. Particularly if the pension plan was in place before they were married. And unlike those who counter-argue, I have no vested interest because I neither pay nor receive child support. It is the principle of abusing computers that I am against.
