Can Malware Harm PC Hardware?

[whrx]

A month or so ago I visited my niece (single mother of 15 yr old boy) and surprised to learn she let him surf the web w/o any restrictions or penalties. He's using WIN 7 with an external HD and at least 2 image backup programs and claims "No problem" when he picks up some malware. Says 99% cured by MS Restore and balance by a Recovery w HP disk then use image backup.

 

I'm considered an old fuddie duddie on both the content he views and the danger to his computer hardware. At that time I was running Vista, so nothing I had to say made any impression..............any advice pls??

 

PS: (I've served in Asia and thought I had seen every possible pervision, but my nephew's quick tour opened my eyes...never dreamed there was so much redially available for free)

 

WHRX

[ident]

A month or so ago I visited my niece (single mother of 15 yr old boy) and surprised to learn she let him surf the web w/o any restrictions or penalties. He's using WIN 7 with an external HD and at least 2 image backup programs and claims "No problem" when he picks up some malware. Says 99% cured by MS Restore and balance by a Recovery w HP disk then use image backup.

 

 

Tbh, i dont agree with a 15 year old boy having web restrictions. But thats my view.

 

Basically speaking, No virus/malware can not harm hardware. Hardware could be disabled. Components like

Your processors and BIOS have built in protection. I'm no malware expert but from what i know i'd strongly say no software could harm hardware. I no of older machines could do some damage but that was then.

 

But my guess if you are not computer literacy then im assuming you mean software? Answer to that is yes.

 

Doing a system restore wont get rid of the virus as such.

 

I'd suggest you have a read up in the security section here to get some good advice on protection.

[Aethec]

A 15-years-old boy having restrictions is rather pointless - that's my view too. (like Pandora's box - if you restrict it, the kid will want to bypass the restrictions. And if he can't, he'll view porn elsewhere)

 

Recently, NVIDIA drivers have burned some graphic cards by disabling the fans due to a bug. Starcraft II has done that, too, by redrawing the menus an infinite number of times, again due to a bug.

Thus, a virus could physically damage your hardware, like any program can if it has admin privileges.

There are also rootkits that modify the BIOS to hide themselves.

[ident]

The only older viruses that i know of that had that kind of ability was the CIH virus, attackted the bios on motherboards but that was years back. Also a old virus name? Could send the wrong signal to the monitor rendering it unusable

 

But any way, pretty much all modern systems have fail safes no?

 

Over clocked - shoudnt/wouldnt start, would need to reset it

 

cpu over heated - system shut down

 

Monitors dont know a great deal much, surely wont run on to high res?

[Tunerz]

Generally the answer is a no. Though a particular software, a driver, can inflict severe harm on the hardware when it's riddled with bugs.

[redhawk]

Modern computer viruses require a working machine to do their dirty work it wouldn't be in the best interest to damage hardware that's so 80s.

I have to agree with Aethec, it's pointless restricting access for 15 year olds they always find ways to view porn either on a phone or a friend's computer.

 

Richard S.

[Talldog9]

Some malware is written or used for the sole purpose to just do as much damage as possible. 99.99999999% is just software damage I guess. Probably just by script kiddies. It's so 80's.

 

 

 

 

edit: And '15 year old' is just a phrase for a highly advanced computer expert with 8 years of experience under their belt.

Edited August 6, 2010 by Talldog9

[Andavari]

I'm no malware expert but from what i know i'd strongly say no software could harm hardware.

The whole buggy NVIDIA drivers thing brings back memories from earlier this year where they could damage the hardware, and their drivers are still very buggy in my opinion so no more NVIDIA cards for me.

[cc1]

A month or so ago I visited my niece (single mother of 15 yr old boy) and surprised to learn she let him surf the web w/o any restrictions or penalties. He's using WIN 7 with an external HD and at least 2 image backup programs and claims "No problem" when he picks up some malware. Says 99% cured by MS Restore and balance by a Recovery w HP disk then use image backup.

I'm considered an old fuddie duddie on both the content he views and the danger to his computer hardware. At that time I was running Vista, so nothing I had to say made any impression..............any advice pls??

PS: (I've served in Asia and thought I had seen every possible pervision, but my nephew's quick tour opened my eyes...never dreamed there was so much redially available for free)

WHRX

 

WHRX, I just want to affirm you for having the concerns you expressed about your niece's son. My kids aren?t yet teenagers, but regardless, I do and will make every effort to promote safe surfing when they are on the internet?even if it means getting heavy-handed. True, as my kids get older they may choose to pursue alternate ways to view objectionable and potentially harmful material. But it won?t be because I deemed it pointless to try to prevent them from doing so. Best wishes to you and your family.

[Aethec]

WHRX, I just want to affirm you for having the concerns you expressed about your niece's son. My kids aren't yet teenagers, but regardless, I do and will make every effort to promote safe surfing when they are on the internet?even if it means getting heavy-handed. True, as my kids get older they may choose to pursue alternate ways to view objectionable and potentially harmful material. But it won't be because I deemed it pointless to try to prevent them from doing so. Best wishes to you and your family.

 

As I said, the more you want to protect them, the more they'll want to view "objectionable and potentially harmful material". Explaining them why this content does not represent real-life is better IMHO.

 

Andavari >> Well, I got blue screens once, but now I haven't noticed any bugs. Maybe because I don't play games so the graphics card is never really used.

[rridgely]

Theres nothing wrong with wanting to block porn on a family computer. If it was my kids I wouldn't bother installing anything to block it, I would just install a program that emails me their web surfing history. Plenty of these types of things out there and the embarassment of me asking them why their looking at whatever would probably be enough to stop it.

 

As far as viruses messing up their hardware its not really all that likely, however him reformatting the pc constantly could kill the hard drive a little quicker.

[ident]

edited for off topic discussion

[hazelnut]

The topic here is....

 

Can Malware Harm PC Hardware

 

now lets keep on topic here and not resort to discussing our respective upbringings.

[Talldog9]

If it was my kids I wouldn't bother installing anything to block it, I would just install a program that emails me their web surfing history. Plenty of these types of things out there and the embarassment of me asking them why their looking at whatever would probably be enough to stop it.

 

That seems to be the way to go IMO. A nice powerful hidden keylogger type program would be less likely to be found than an in your face blocking program. It would probably be better than a stealth blocker type one too. You could set then set security policies with any modern OS to prevent the task manager. I'm sure something could be set up to prevent alternative task managers from running. If there is some keylogger that has the option to be hidden by a rootkit even better. Then maybe find some way to keep GMER and other popular anti-rootkits from running.

 

Obviously the kid should not have administrator access to the PC.

 

edit: doesn't need to be a full-blown keylogger.

Edited August 7, 2010 by Talldog9

[Aethec]

Shouldn't we create another topic to talk about spying your kids ?