Is there a virus that can kill a hard drive at the physical level?

Question

Malware

Is there a virus that can kill a hard drive at the physical level?

Answer 1

Hypothetically, if a virus changes the HDD firmware and does not park the HDD head, then with a small chance between stopping and starting pancakes, the head can scratch the disk. But this is only theoretical.

Answer 2

WinChich was killing the BIOS. If the interface of the hard drive allows you to change the firmware, then it may well kill. Another question - who needs it? and why ?

Answer 3

You see, in theory it might be possible, but put yourself in the place of those who write viruses?
Why is he, the author of such a brainchild will not receive any profit from the introduction to the masses.
It is much more profitable to make banking trojans, lockers (various ransomware viruses).
Moreover, most viruses work in ring3 (User Mod).

Answer 4

for a long time I read reflections on this matter ... like somehow find out (find or just brute force) the resonant frequency of the block of heads and shake / loosen them))))
it’s hard to believe that the virus seized control of the system and was played by the hard drive on the right and on left and so that nothing else wants to use it at this time%)))
it's probably easier to influence the user's brains and infect him with the idea of ​​gouging him with a hammer)))

Answer 5

Recently I encountered a virus that does not kill the disk, but encrypts the files. I received a letter in the mail from the provider about the increase in the tariff, it turned out to be a virus. Encrypted all pictures, Word and Excel files. It was not possible to decrypt, although the logic of the encoder is clear, the virus itself is removed simply - with the help of the CCleaner program , I cleaned the autoload, removed the virus itself, by the way, it signed up in the 1C folder.