Hi All,
To settle the question of whether or not a non-write-protected floppy,
such as an anti-virus disk, could be corrupted by a virus in a computer when
trying to remove the virus, I contacted McAfee on the Internet, which led me
to NAI.COM, which apparently works hand-in-hand with McAfee:
-----Original Message-----
From: Cox, Tanya <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, June 15, 1998 1:17 PM
Subject: RE: Question
>Karl,
>Your question was forwarded to me to answer.
>If you access any non write protected diskette on an infected computer
>that floppy diskette will become infected, however becoming infected
>does not generally corrupt a floppy diskette. Most viruses are not
>destructive they are simply a nuisance, however some viruses can
>indirectly cause damage and you could end up with a corrupt boot sector.
>For example all current boot sector infectors are FAT16 viruses and if
>one of these type of viruses infect a FAT32 system they will most likely
>end up corrupting the boot sector especially if it is an overwriting
>virus. You could also have a case where when the virus infects a boot
>sector it moves the original boot sector to another area on the disk
>that contains data, this would cause the boot sector to become corrupt.
>
>Hope this answers your question.
>
>Thanks
>Tanya Cox
>Corporate AV Product Lead
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: kkkuller [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Monday, June 08, 1998 10:34 AM
>To: WebComments
>Subject: Virus Transfer
>
> McAfee led me to your //support.nai.com/Forums/ site, while good,
>did
>not resolve an important question.
>
> It had been stated elsewhere that placing an anti-virus bootup disk
into an
>infected computer WILL NOT corrupt the bootup disk if the disk was left in
>the WRITE mode (person forgot to set tab to NON-WRITE mode). Is this true?
> If not true, please indicate process by which virus in infected
computer
>can corrupt the anti-virus bootup disk so that
>I can post your answer on the PCSOFT SOFTWARE DISCUSSION LIST, which has
>subscribers from all over the world. Thank you.
> K. Karl Kuller [log in to unmask]
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