April 1st Virus?

[dalegg 143]

Anyone heard of this? My son just told me about it.

Conficker Worm

I love the sub heading "A Look At The Virus, And Why It Has Experts Stumped

[one...two...tree 2,762]

From what I understand about this one - supposedly, many computers have already been infected, but on April 1st, there might be instructions from another computer that trigger the virus out of dormancy and do damage to your computer or possibly someone elses.

Email seems to be the way they spread themselves and these viruses find everyone in your address book. It makes sense to me that Yahoo and other email providers need to encrypt email address lists and simply make them a text list that you'd have to type a person's address, rather than having the actual addresses stored.

The other thing is to turn your computer off when it's not being used, or at least disconnect the modem or ethernet cable.

Edited March 31, 2009 by Mister Fancypants

[dalegg 143]

This bothers me.

[DeadPoolX 9]

Snopes says the Conficker Virus is real. This particular threat reminds me of the Michelangelo Virus back in 1992.

My question is this: if the virus is supposed to attack on April 1st, why doesn't everyone simply set their PC's clock ahead to April 2nd or 3rd? Maybe it'd work and maybe it wouldn't, but it might be safer than doing nothing. As most of us know, the chances of any of us keeping our computer off for a whole day is slim-to-none.

[Niels Bohr 72]

My antivirus will pick it up.

[LoriLawless 0]

My antivirus will pick it up.

It's supposed to disable your antivirus.

From what I read there was a patch created in October of 2008. I went to download the update, but my computer automatically updates and caught it.

So for anyone who has their computer set to update, you should be safe.

[Niels Bohr 72]

My antivirus will pick it up.

It's supposed to disable your antivirus.

From what I read there was a patch created in October of 2008. I went to download the update, but my computer automatically updates and caught it.

So for anyone who has their computer set to update, you should be safe.

I doubt there's a malicious virus like this. Probably an April Fools Joke. It looks impossible to have it infect all Windows Machines.

[almaty 19]

true..i heard it was mainly an europe issue..

[LoriLawless 0]

My antivirus will pick it up.

It's supposed to disable your antivirus.

From what I read there was a patch created in October of 2008. I went to download the update, but my computer automatically updates and caught it.

So for anyone who has their computer set to update, you should be safe.

I doubt there's a malicious virus like this. Probably an April Fools Joke. It looks impossible to have it infect all Windows Machines.

I think there's something but I don't think it's as big as it's made out to be. I didn't see where it said anything about infecting all Windows machines though. It'll be hyped up, but I doubt many will see effects of it, if any at all.

[fozzie 41]

true..i heard it was mainly an europe issue..

Its a virus transmitted via email/internet. There is no such thing as mainly a europe issue (world wide web).

My mum fixes computers fr the Royal Airforce and has been fighting this one for months. Its driving her nuts, even though they are getting updated instructions from microsoft every couple of days. Trouble is, when you have millions of computers infected with it you need a fix that can be disseminated in the same way as the virus itself.

Moral of the story: Once you've had Mac, you don't go back.

[Bobby+Umit 161]

It's a worm, uses an exploit, and brute force to break into computers.

Lies there till 1st of April.

Security experts disabled the domains it was suppose to send status to, but the author changed it to 500,00 domains, so oh oh.

If your keeping your pc updated with the latest patches from MS, and have a decent firewall/virus software, you shouldn't worry.

It seems right now it's mostly in countries that are running illegal copies of windows.

A quick check is to see if you can go to www.symantec.com or www.mircrosoft.com. Or run windows update.

If they time out, you might be infected.

Here is a good write up of it, with detection and removal tools.

Run a Conficker removal tool Before Tomorrow

BTW - MS has a bounty on the author, so if you know who did it, turn them in for some cash

And on a personal not, I highly recommend OPENDNS for your DNS needs, stops this and other vectors of attacks into your PC's. Plus parents can limit access to "questionable" sites for their pc's at home, best of all, it's free.

Edited March 31, 2009 by Bobby_Umit

[Sprailenes 47]

true..i heard it was mainly an europe issue..

Its a virus transmitted via email/internet. There is no such thing as mainly a europe issue (world wide web).

My mum fixes computers fr the Royal Airforce and has been fighting this one for months. Its driving her nuts, even though they are getting updated instructions from microsoft every couple of days. Trouble is, when you have millions of computers infected with it you need a fix that can be disseminated in the same way as the virus itself.

Moral of the story: Once you've had Mac, you don't go back.

Word.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Dale,

This might give you a little peace of mind...

Last-minute Conficker survival guide

Conficker's a nasty little worm that takes serious efforts to bypass your security defenses, but you aren't without some tools in your arsenal to protect yourself.

Your first step should be the tools you already have: Windows Update, to make sure your computer is fully patched, and your current antivirus software, to make sure anything that slips through the cracks is caught.

But if Conficker's already on your machine, it may bypass certain subsystems and updating Windows and your antivirus at this point may not work. If you are worried about anything being amiss -- try booting into Safe Mode, which Conficker prevents, to check -- you should run a specialized tool to get rid of Conficker.

Microsoft offers a web-based scanner (note that some users have reported it crashed their machines; I had no trouble with it), so you might try one of these downloadable options instead: Symantec's Conficker (aka Downadup) tool, Trend Micro's Cleanup Engine, or Malwarebytes. Conficker may prevent your machine from accessing any of these websites, so you may have to download these tools from a known non-infected computer if you need them. Follow the instructions given on each site to run them successfully. (Also note: None of these tools should harm your computer if you don't have Conficker.)

As a final safety note, all users -- whether they're worried about an infection or know for sure they're clean -- are also wise to make a full data backup today.

What won't work? Turning your PC off tonight and back on on April 2 will not protect you from the worm (sorry to the dozens of people who wrote me asking if this would do the trick). Temporarily disconnecting your computer from the web won't help if the malware is already on your machine -- it will simply activate once you connect again. Changing the date on your PC will likely have no helpful effect, either. And yes, Macs are immune this time out. Follow the above instructions to detect and remove the worm.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/132464

[Laura+Tom 2]

true..i heard it was mainly an europe issue..

Its a virus transmitted via email/internet. There is no such thing as mainly a europe issue (world wide web).

My mum fixes computers fr the Royal Airforce and has been fighting this one for months. Its driving her nuts, even though they are getting updated instructions from microsoft every couple of days. Trouble is, when you have millions of computers infected with it you need a fix that can be disseminated in the same way as the virus itself.

Moral of the story: Once you've had Mac, you don't go back.

Yeah I know all about this from working on an RAF base, it's no April 1st.

[DeadPoolX 9]

Moral of the story: Once you've had Mac, you don't go back.

Or Linux. I'm not sure if this virus would be a danger if you have a dual-boot machine (Linux/Windows or OSX/Windows), but since a lot of people have these setups today, I'd be wary -- even if your primary OS isn't Windows.

Edited March 31, 2009 by DeadPoolX