Conficker? aka W32.Downadup.x
Well the media hype has been going for the last few days. I was going through my Google Reader feeds as I usually do and I saw continual stuff about the Conficker.C virus.
The NY Times, Vancouver Sun, CNET, BBC, oh and my favourite one: CBS’s 60 Minutes which was recovered by CNET, have been commenting on this virus and as usual, media attention is probably blowing this out of proportion. We really won’t know until Wednesday, April 1st, 2009. Maybe it’ll be one giagantic April fools joke. This is all very unlikely as the botnet and hacking networks are capable of making lots of revenue.
Are you protected?
For most virus scanners, as long as they are updated, they should be able to offer more safety from those who have no anti-virus tools.
The big key is to make sure you have the latest Windows OS Updates, and more specificall,y Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067 – Critical.
That patch was released in Oct last year so there shouldn’t be any excuses!
This virus is likely to affect corporate users who’s IT admins use group policies to disable auto-updates.
For the nerds…
Have some fun reading these science-report like documents:
http://mtc.sri.com/Conficker/ <— this one is ridiculous…and no, I did not read it. I just linked it! There are also 3 addendum.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/962007
For everyone else…
Sit back, relax and watch the news!
I should mention that I am working during the afternoon shift at the CCS HelpDesk on Wednesday. I’m expecting a regular shift of university students who lose their essay due to stupidity and the usual, “where is the washroom/how do i scan/how do i print” questions.
PS: The 60 minutes interview was very amusing!
More links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conficker
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10204590-83.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/03/canadian-ca-domain-prepares-united-confickerc-defense.ars
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090326.wworm0326/BNStory/Technology/home