BACKDOOR IN COMPUTERS BIOS?? SURE SOUNDS THAT WAY

This is bad, if true nothing is safe to use!
Course, I've already said worse over phone than puter!

The worlds worst malware, "badBIOS", mystifies and appalls seasoned computer security experts

Posted By: MrFusion [Send E-Mail]
Date: Friday, 1-Nov-2013 00:39:58

Sounds like a Halloween prank story, but the author insists it's not (in the comment section). Especially creepy is the part about infected computers communicating with each other by sending ultrasonic signals between speakers and microphones:

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Meet “badBIOS,” the mysterious Mac and PC malware that jumps airgaps
Like a super strain of bacteria, the rootkit plaguing Dragos Ruiu is omnipotent.
by Dan Goodin - Oct 31 2013

Three years ago, security consultant Dragos Ruiu was in his lab when he noticed something highly unusual: his MacBook Air, on which he had just installed a fresh copy of OS X, spontaneously updated the firmware that helps it boot. Stranger still, when Ruiu then tried to boot the machine off a CD ROM, it refused. He also found that the machine could delete data and undo configuration changes with no prompting. He didn't know it then, but that odd firmware update would become a high-stakes malware mystery that would consume most of his waking hours.

In the following months, Ruiu observed more odd phenomena that seemed straight out of a science-fiction thriller. A computer running the Open BSD operating system also began to modify its settings and delete its data without explanation or prompting. His network transmitted data specific to the Internet's next-generation IPv6 networking protocol, even from computers that were supposed to have IPv6 completely disabled. Strangest of all was the ability of infected machines to transmit small amounts of network data with other infected machines even when their power cords and Ethernet cables were unplugged and their Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cards were removed. Further investigation soon showed that the list of affected operating systems also included multiple variants of Windows and Linux.

"We were like, 'Okay, we're totally owned,'" Ruiu told Ars. "'We have to erase all our systems and start from scratch,' which we did. It was a very painful exercise. I've been suspicious of stuff around here ever since."

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http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/10/meet-badbios-the-mysterious-mac-and-pc-malware-that-jumps-airgaps/