Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
Conficker is coming alive.
The virus that threatened to cause chaos on April Fool’s Day and was eventually labelled by some as a prank, is having the last laugh as it becomes activated across a number of personal computers.
Conficker, also spelt Conflicker, and also known as Downadup, or Kido, is a particularly insidious form of worm which sits covertly on a computer and turns them into a zombie, part of a botnet. The zombie sits and awaits instructions, mostly opening the way for a piece of malware with a specific task. This might be a virus called Waledac, which sends out millions of spam emails from the computer’s mail box.
Accompanying the spam emails are false anti-spyware programmes which eventually renders the receiving computer open to attack. The receiving computer is then recruited into the botnet, in turn sending out more spam email. The receiving computer is also sitting there with its defences down, awaiting the virus to send back personal and financial details of its user back to the originator of the worm.
Computer security experts are worried because the worm appears very sophisticated and operates in a stealth mode, sitting on machines until activated. It’s feared that the Conficker has infiltrated thousands of computers, awaiting instructions. Experts also fear that there is a twist that no-one is aware of yet, as the Conficker has yet to show its true colours.
The Conficker and its botnets are thought to be controlled by cyber crime syndicates based in China, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
The worm is designed to exploit operating system weaknesses, with Windows being particularly vulnerable. It can by-pass many corporate firewalls as people swap files from one infected computer to a clean one, using a USB memory stick.
Computer users worldwide are being warned to be on their guard against the Conficker.
Guest Article by Neil Camp
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My name is Alan Potts and I'm the Editor of the Antivirus-BUYability web site and Managing Director of BUYability Limited. You can connect with me or keep up to date with new posts on this blog via the following social media sites: 
