Virus repair cost a man $6 million - malware linked to Opus Dei plot

A US court has heard how it cost a great-grandson of an oil industry tycoon at least $ 6 million after he took his computer in to the workshop to repair it after it was infected with a virus.

The victim was probably jazz pianist and composer Roger Davidson, an heir of oil tycoon Conrad Schlumberger, although the authorities have refused to name him.

The victim took his computer to 36-year-old Vickram Bedi and his girlfriend Helga Invarsdottir after it developed a virus.

According to prosecutors, the pair cooked up a scheme which convinced Davidson that his life was in danger.

They told him that while investigating the virus, they had found that the virus had been tracked to a hard drive in Honduras. OK, this is a pretty good service. Most computer repair places would have wiped the hard-drive and reinstalled the operating system. Tracking down the source of the virus is not something they tend to do.

But the victim apparently didn't know that. According to the New York Daily News, which we get for the free bagel, media friendly Bedi claimed his uncle was an Indian military officer who was sent on a reconnaissance mission to Honduras and seized the hard drive of the computer virus culprits.

"Bedi further related that his uncle obtained information that Polish priests affiliated with Opus Dei were attempting to possibly harm the victim," prosecutors said.

Apparently the CIA had contracted the computer repair shop worker to prevent the priests from infiltrating the U.S. government.

The victim paid the pair up to $160,000 a month for physical protection, because you often pay for protection from your computer repairshop. Inspector Knacker uncovered the scam in July and alerted the victim.

Bedi and Invarsdottir, the daughter of a wealthy businessman from Iceland, were arrested Thursday and arraigned Friday on charges of felony grand larceny.

Media friendly Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos said that stories don't get much more far fetched than this, but they do underline the importance for everyone to be on guard against scams.

Shesh, we are more worried about a plot by right wing Opus Dei Catholic priests to infiltrate the US government, which suspiciously is not being investigated.

oh, the Opus Dei is there everywhere! White albino monks, Dan Brown's fevered imagination, etc!

The thing that those who go all cock-a-hoop against Catholics and individual mistkes made by individual Catholics (laity or priest) is that they don't understand Christianity!

We are Catholics, we are driven by Christ, we are not a personality driven MegaChurch that rises or falls based on a pastor -- our High Priest is Christ Himself.

If we have a sin filled priest (and hey, they are human after all), that matters not. If they are criminals boot them in prison, that doesn't affect our Church. If they can't preach, that matters not.

Because we look beyond this human vessel and focus on Christ in the Eucharist

During our Holy Prayer to God, what do we have?

We enter in holding aloft the Word of God, singing praises to God
We hear the Word of God, we meditate on this
we sing praises to God, recite glorious psalms, dwell our thoughts on God
and then, my friend, we experience a marvelous, miraculous experience, the Eucharist! Why is it all of this? Because we witness God's sacrifice, His giving of Himself to us, we look on in awe at Jesus Christ, our Lord, God and Savior in the Eucharist, fulfilling His promise to us and giving us the graces in communion
We recite the Nicene Creed acknowledging our Triune God
We pray to the Father as Jesus taught us to pray
We experience the blessings of the Holy Spirit, the grace, the freely given grace granted through the Spirit.
We pray in silence, contemplating this supernatural experience
We greet one another, brothers and sisters, all sharing in this ONE experience along with millions of our brothers and sisters across the world, stretching back to the Apostles and forward to His return
We leave the Church with joy, Christ in our hearts and the Holy Spirit indwelling in us with the grace of the Father.

oh, my friend in Christ, we are blessed to have experienced this -- and where does the minister figure in all of this? He is just a tool, a means. God uses splendid tools or weak ones, but they are just tools

What is at the centre of our Churches? Not like in others, the pulpit, glorifying the preacher, but in Our Church the center-piece is the altar with the Eucharist, the Bible and the Cross, remembering us of Our Risen Lord, His sacrifice and His Word

Arise, let us take back our Church Catholic.

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