Posted on 02/17/2015 7:03:37 AM PST by BenLurkin
The malware reprograms the hard drive’s firmware, creating hidden sectors on the drive that can only be accessed through a secret API (application programming interface). Once installed, the malware is impossible to remove: disk formatting and reinstalling the OS doesn’t affect it, and the hidden storage sector remains.
“Theoretically, we were aware of this possibility, but as far as I know this is the only case ever that we have seen of an attacker having such an incredibly advanced capability,” said Costin Raiu, director of Kaspersky Lab’s global research and analysis team, in a phone interview Monday.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
That’s it. I’m going to get an old MFM hard drive and use SpinRite to perform a low level format. Let’s see . . . 330 MB times two per card time 4 slots, almost 2.5 GB.
Maybe I can run off of USB jump drives.
I call BS. That would require a lot of user interaction.
Why wouldn’t RE-reprogramming the firmware, followed by scrub and reinstall work?
Ping for later
Back to this?
DEBUG >
g=c800:5 >
I wonder how long it would take on a 1TB drive?
I forgot to enter the bad sectors.
Well over a decade ago, a younger relative advised his family members to remove all hard disks from our old PC’s when we got rid of them.
Then, he told us to drill holes into the hard disks and soak them in a mix of salt water and bleach for a few days. Then throw them away.
At that time he warned us, the so called erase programs didn’t
Do the job.
It’s beginning to look like I’m going to have to have two computers. One that’s not hooked up online for all my super critical stuff and the other online computer.
.357 mag JHP?
I’m glad that I am not the only one who recommends bleach on platters.
This is what I recommend to friends. Somewhere along the line we decided that EVERYTHING had to be on-line. It's a choice between convenience and security and we have chosen convenience.
Linux live discs and flash media?
I use an arc welder. Put it on AC, turn the amps all the way up, ground the case and drop a stick of 6011 through it lengthwise.
Not to worry when the FCC takes over nothing will work.
LOL! That’ll work too. Nice goin’ ‘Sparky’.
All flash media has firmware. You can overwrite the media until you’re blue, but it won’t affect the firmware.
One of our RAID drives went bad on the company server last fall and the IT guy let me enforce Rule .308 on it.
He liked the results, indicated it should be the preferred disposal method. :-)
Safety goggles firmly in place. Wouldn’t want anyone to lose and eye due to flying “bits”.
The US Govt is behind all this BS. They are destroying the export markets for the US drive manufacturers. All in the name of “national security”. These machinations by the NSA are destroying this country.
I can hear it now: “We had to wreck the country in order to save it.”
Whoever made this decision should be hung.
If the firmware is re-writable, you should be able to re-flash it.
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