conficker virus
The conficker computer worm, also known as downup, downandup and Kido first surfaced in 2008 but as of January 17, IBN Live reports that 6.5 million computers have already been infected by this virus. [1]
In late 2008, a new virus called Conficker began to spread across the Internet. [2]
Conficker, also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido, is a computer worm that surfaced in October 2008 and targets the Microsoft Windows operating system. [3]
Yesterday we reported on the news that the creators of the Conficker.B virus might have blundered in their coding of its havoc-wreaking capabilities. [4]
When the infected hoard begins hitting the Southwest.com site, Conficker will have effectively started a distributed denial-of-service attack, or DDoS attack. [5]
It was already known that Conficker exploited USB sticks by creating an Autorun file so that the virus loaded the moment the stick went into a machine. [4]
CITES automatically blocks any computer infected with the Conficker virus that tries to connect to the campus network. [2]
When the downadup or conficker worm is executed in a PC, win 32 downadup virus disables systems such as the Windows Automatic Update, Windows Security Center, Windows Defender and Windows Error Reporting. [1]
In a recent SophosLabs corporate blog post, he explained that millions of computers infected with the virus are set to start accessing, and thus attacking, the Southwest’s Web site on March 13. [5]
Security researchers are calling this a ’social engineering trick’, meaning it exploits the way humans act. [4]
Initially, this line of attack was aided by the Windows Auto-Run feature which would make it easy for one bad USB drive to infect many computers. [...] Security researchers do not know exactly what will be contained in those instructions, but it is not expected to be good. [2]
The virus spread to 13 schools estimated to have infected 7,500 computers. [3]
In February 2009, Microsoft announced it had formed a partnership with other technology agencies to coordinate a response to Conficker and was offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for launching the Conficker code on the Internet. [6]
Security companies that make antivirus software are doing their best to keep up with Conficker and its mutations. [2]
Sources:
[1] How to Remove Conficker Virus
[2] CITES :: Conficker Virus
[3] Conficker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[4] More details on the Conficker virus - VISTA.BLORGE
[5] Conficker Virus to Attack Southwest Airlines Web Site
[6] snopes.com: Conficker