Virus erases hard drives, calls for help

Federal authorities are said to be investigating a computer virus that can erase hard drives and dial 911 emergency systems.

The so-called self-propagating script can "overwrite victim hard drives," and causes "victim systems to dial 911, possibly causing emergency authorities to check out substantial numbers of `false positive' calls," according to a posting by the National Infrastructure Protection Center.

So far, the virus has been limited to the Houston, Texas area, the NIPC said.

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