Southwest Stars Data Recovery Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Southwest Stars WARNS PC USERS OF DANGEROUS "THUS" VIRUS VARIANTS

Company sees several instances in its data recovery services business

San Antonio, Texas, Dec 17 -- Data recovery experts at SOUTHWEST STARS today issued an alert that they have seen several highly destructive variants on a macro virus that first appeared in September 1999. The "Thus" virus, also known as the Thursday virus, delivered a payload on December 14, 2000 that attempts to delete ALL files and subdirectories from the root of the C: drive.

Southwest Stars has received several calls today from customers affected by the Thus virus. "As experts in the data recovery field, we feel obliged to inform PC users of potential data loss events," said Richard York, director of worldwide data recovery for Southwest Stars. "We have the technology that allows us to recapture the data that was deleted by this virus and we want PC users to know there is a solution when a virus strikes their computer. The most important thing to remember is not to panic."

Southwest Stars encourages users to use an up-to-date anti-virus software tool to detect and clean the virus and prevent the infection from spreading. For users who have lost data as a result of the Thus virus, the company offers remote data recovery services. remote data recovery is an special service that enables Southwest Stars expert engineers to quickly recover a user's lost data through a modem or the Internet without the hassle of removing the computer from its desktop or bringing the server down. Within one hour of being notified of a data loss, Southwest Stars engineers can give users an estimated cost to retrieve the missing data. Data is then recovered within a matter of hours.

Remote data recovery standard service is available for a $150 diagnosis fee, and recovery fees will vary depending on the size of the system and the severity of the damage. Additional information on these solutions is available at www.swstars.com.

Southwest Stars, a provider of data recovery solutions, helps customers protect, manage, recover and discover their valuable data. Using its hundreds of proprietary tools and techniques, Southwest Stars is able to recover lost or corrupted data from virtually all operating systems and types of storage devices through its remote and in-lab capabilities. Southwest Stars can be reached through its World Wide Web site at http://www.swstars.com or by calling 800-924-0305.

# # #

CONTACT INFO:
Southwest Stars Corporation
Lila York
5511 San Pedro Avenue
San Antonio, TX 78212
USA
Email: datasavers@swstars.com
URL: http://www.swstars.com