by Times of Oman

Youth develops virus cleaner

MUSCAT — Yaha Virus, a new deadly computer virus, has established itself in Oman. This virus has affected many computer users already and is continuing to spread wildly. Tariq bin Hilal Al Barwani, an Omani computer expert, has developed a brand new virus cleaner to battle the deadly virus. The virus cleaner can be downloaded for free from his personal website at http://www.tariq.net. The virus arrives in e-mail boxes with an attached file under different subject heading such as: Are you the best; How to hack Hotmail; I love you; Wanna be like a stone?; Are you a soccer fan?; Sexy screensavers 4 u; Check it out; We want peace; Wanna be a he-man; Visit us; One virus writer’s story; One hacker’s love; And many more … etc etc. It will also arrive with an unknown varied executable email attachment (file); such as: Hotmail_hack.exe; Friendship.scr; World_of_friendship.scr; Shake.scr; Sweet.scr; Be_happy.scr; Friend_finder.exe; I_like_you.scr; Love.scr; Dance.scr; Gc_messenger.exe; True_love.scr; Friend_happy.scr; Best_friend.scr; Life.scr.

Once the file (virus) is executed, it alters your system and changes some of the critical system configuration file causing the system not to function properly, in addition, disables the anti-virus cleaner (if not updated) from detecting future viruses. The virus then uses its own SMTP engine to email itself to all contacts in the Windows Address Book, the MSN Messenger, the .NET Messenger, the Yahoo Pager, and all files whose extensions contains the letters HT. It attempts to use the infected computer’s default SMTP server to send mail. If it cannot find that information, then it uses one of many SMTP server addresses that are hard-coded into the worm.

“The virus is spreading all over Oman, and I have already received a lot of emails enquiring about it. Hence, I decided to create a programme which would remove the virus, recover the state of the system and finally enable the Vendor’s Virus Cleaner, be it Norton’s or Mcafee, to function properly,” Tariq said.

“Users who are regularly updating their anti-virus shouldn’t find any difficulties detecting and removing the virus; however, if the virus infects a system, the cleaner will be terminated (disabled) and users will have some problems removing it manually. My programme will simply return everything as it was. The user is then recommended to update their virus cleaner in order to remain safe,” he added.

“It is always my pleasure to create useful programmes and provide it free for the public,” Tariq noted.