April Fools Conficker Worm Threat
The Conficker Worm is no April Fools joke. It's serious enough for Microsoft to offer $250,000 to anyone tracking down the perpetrator. The worm may already be planted on as many as 12 million systems waiting to to do it's damage until a specified date; in the case of the Conficker that is believed to be tomorrow, April 1st.
Early versions of the Conficker worm began infecting computers back in October by exploiting a security hole in Windows systems. Security experts believe the damage will be done on April first when the worm will receive instructions from a master computer and steal user information, passwords and credit card numbers. If you have kept up with the latest security updates from Microsoft and have a valid security suite installed and updated you should be secure. This is not something to cut corners on by installing free products; there is a reason they are free.
One of the signs your system is infected is that your browser is unable to load the Microsoft website or those of the major security software vendors including BitDefender, McAfee and Symantec. We have experienced this with some of our new customers who had been using free tools or weren't updating security product they had pre-installed as trial versions when purchasing a new PC. If this is the case, there are tools provided by these vendors to eradicate the worm but you will need to download them using another system as the infected system won't be able to access the source. Our favorite, BitDefender, offers a tool for the Conficker worm available at their Security News Page as well as a demonstration on YouTube.
If your system is infected and you are now convinced you need a top level security suite you need to run these tools and get rid of the malware first. We have found it best to disconnect from the Internet, start the system in safe mode [hold down the F8 as soon as Windows begiins to load]. Our obvious preference is BitDefender Total Security. Once again, they have won TopTen Reviews Security Suites Gold Award. Great protection at a reasonable price.
