At a security conference CanSecWest, a presentation entitled “How many million BIOSes would you like to infect?” by security researchers Corey Kallenberg and Xeno Kovah had revealed that an untrained individual could use the implant called LightEater to infect a vulnerable system in just a small period of time. After all, two minutes is all it takes to destroy a computer completely.

The LightEater Virus attack could make your computer unusable and/or steal your passwords and intercept encrypted data. Gigabyte, Acer, MSI , HP, and Asus are the computers which may be affected by this virus and whose mother boards are being attacked by the said LightEater Virus.

The LightEater Virus may be considered as a threat to many establishments since it exposes the computer. Thus, researchers are encouraging business proprietors and government offices to install BIOS patches to secure their units. The LightEater Virus usually attacks unpatched BIOS. Up to date, there are still users who do not update their BIOS.

Kovah and Kallenberg had said: “So you think you're doing OPSEC right, right? You're going to crazy lengths to protect yourself, reinstalling your main OS every month, or using a privacy-conscious live DVD like TAILS. Guess what? BIOS malware doesn't care! BIOS malware doesn't give a shit!” An infected system by the LightEater Virus will create an SMM or System Management Mode implants which will match with the computer’s existing BIOS.

The researchers had exposed the malware by having a kernel driver write an invalid instruction which the CPU would read off the flash chip. The device would then shut down and never to boot back up again. Users are encouraged to secure their BIOS from any untoward system issues by fixing their unpatched BIOS.

Well, this malware which hacks into your personal data sounds like something a spy would actually do. But who would be interested to spy on you.