If you or a loved one has a computer that’s been infected with some nastyware or a real bona-fide virus, the last resort is always to do a complete format and reinstall. It’s the computer repair equivalent of nuking the site from orbit — it’s the only way to be sure. However, in computers as in Aliens, you may find your opponent is more tenacious then you think. In this case, some security professionals have created a virus that makes its home on your motherboard’s BIOS. I call it the “Chestburster” virus, but I think they came up with something else.
The 100-line virus these guys created is for demonstration purposes only — they don’t plan to unleash it on the world. Piggybacking on a helper virus that gains admin privileges and then flashes the BIOS, this sub-virus would stay alive even if you changed out every other piece of hardware. The only way to fix it would be to re-flash the BIOS with a non-infected computer.
Sounds awfully nasty. Our advice? In real life as in cyber life, don’t accept attachments from strange men.