This is not an April fool’s day joke dear. Its a virus which is said to hit many Pcs and takeover control over them on 1st April. The name is conficker. Prominently it targets the Microsoft Operating systems and especially Windows Xp and Vista. Conficker first bubbled up in late 2008 and began making headlines in January as known infections topped 9 million computers. Now in its third variant, Conficker C, the worm has grown incredibly complicated, powerful, and virulent… though no one is quite sure exactly what it will do when D-Day arrives. So its a suspense and we have to watch to see its vulnerabilities on 1st April.

Conficker hideously installs remote softwares on infected PC leaving insecured and allowing remote connection with head servers of the Virus. Its unpredictable that what will be the affects of this worm. But it is said to be that the virus is meant to create a botnet with help of installed malicious softwares and further it will be rented to the cyber-criminals who wish to do SPAM activities and stealing IDs and Passwords and even more.

This worm mostly spreads across networks. If it finds a vulnerable computer, it turns off the automatic backup service, deletes previous restore points, disables many security services, blocks access to a number of security web sites and opens infected machines to receive additional programs from the malware’s creator. The worm then tries to spread itself to other computers on the same network. It even make its copy in removable USB flash memories for spreading.

Who is at risk?

If you have disabled your windows update and have old virus definitions for your antivirus, you may be at high risk. Users who do not have a genuine version of Windows from Microsoft are most at risk since pirated system usually cannot get Microsoft updates and patches.

Advice to Stay Safe from the Downadup aka Conficker Worm:

1. Run a good security suite and antiviruses such as Norton, Kaspersky.
2. Keep your computer updated with the latest patches. If you don’t know how to do this, have someone help you set your system to update itself.
3. Don’t use “free” security scans that pop up on many web sites. All too often these are fake, using scare tactics to try to get you to purchase their “full” service. In many cases these are actually infecting you while they run. There is reason to believe that the creators of the Conficker worm are associated with some of these fake security products.
4. Turn off the “autorun” feature that will automatically run programs found on memory sticks and other USB devices.
5. Be smart with your passwords. This includes

1. Change your passwords periodically
2. Use complex passwords – no simple names or words, use special characters and numbers
3. Using a separate, longer password for each site that has sensitive personal information or access to your bank accounts or credit cards.

1. Use a passwords management system such as Identity Safe (included in Norton Internet Security and Norton 36o) to track your passwords and to fill out forms automatically.

****One symptom that may indicate you are infected is finding that your computer is blocked from accessing the web sites of most security companies.

Conficker is clever in the way it hides its tracks because it uses an enormous number of URLs to communicate with HQ. The first version of Conficker used just 250 addresses each day — which security researchers and ICANN simply bought and/or disabled — but Conficker C will up the ante to 50,000 addresses a day when it goes active, a number which simply can’t be tracked and disabled by hand.

At this point, you should be extra vigilant about protecting your PC: Patch Windows completely through Windows Update and update your anti-malware software as well. Make sure your antivirus software is actually running too, as Conficker may have disabled it.

Microsoft also offers a free online safety scan here, which should be able to detect all Conficker versions.

****Be safe while you surf ****