virus that wrecked havoc

[JWade]

friend of mine I guess got his computer and laptop infected with a bad nasty virus. I have to assume it, because he took it to three different computer "stores" and had them look at his desktop. third place has it, and wont give it back until he pay them $110 (just for looking at it, first two places didn't charge because no actual work was done to it removing the virus(s))

virus infected and wrote to his bios, video card ram, MBR of his hard drives and bricked them, and it was transferred to his laptop when he used a thumbdrive to reload windows onto the desktop and couldn't, then plugged the thumb drive in his laptop to make sure he had the install files on it, and that's when the laptop got infected. he has a gaming mouse with onboard storage, and it is infected and can be transferred to other systems all three computer shops told him.

he didn't think of letting me look at them until recently. he hasn't brought me his laptop yet, and he doesn't have the desktop until he pays the computer shop, which he thinks is wrong, but I know the shop, and they have in their lobby a sign that says minimum charge for repairs/diagnostics is $110, and they did "diagnose" his desktop.

anyways, none of them could tell him the name of the virus(s) that did all that, anyone have an idea on the names?

 

[C1]

The description sounds like weaponized STUXNET got loose (eg, modifying video card firmware).

A guess is that the problem isnt THAT bad (ie, the repair shops are exaggerating about what is going on because they technically havent spent the time/effort to do the required analysis so are just guessing or presenting worst case).

In any event, looks like there will need to involve lots of careful analysis, clean up and test work.

 

[IJTSSG]

Any update on this? I'm curious.