Conficker Worm

[GLC1968]

Mack-a-fee with the emphasis on the first syllable.

The news guys have said Ma-caf-ee, Ma-caf-ery, Mac-affree, you name it...everything except the right way. And McAfee has a major develoment center in this area (the high level guys who develop the code to defeat these viruses) so it would take only a simple, local, phone call to learn the right way to say it. If I were a news reporter and was so unsure that I said it differently each and every time I said it, I'd have made that call before air-time!

[smurfalicious]

This thing has been around, and infecting systems since October of '08. So unless you're infected today is just another day. It's likely just another day for those who are. This article puts it nicely:

http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...-meltdown.html

[tctrek]

I'm just glad I have a Mac.. don't need to worry about these goofy viruses. Whoever writes these worms/viruses needs to get a life... they should go ride a bike or something!

[emily_in_nc]

This site contains some good information and a check-up of whether your PC is infected, but the simplest tip I learned is that if you can even browse to this site, you don't have Conficker, since the worm itself blocks links that have the word "Conficker" in them:

http://www.confickerworkinggroup.org...NY.RepairTools

Haven't heard of anyone who has actually been infected, thankfully!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Be careful. There are some sites out there that claim to help you find out if you have the worm- and they are actually set up to infect you with it when you go to the site and start clicking around following instructions. I wouldn't trust any site other than well known sites such as Microsoft.com or Symantic.com, or other well known anti-virus sites.
The best defense?- keep your OS updated with security updates, and keep a good anti-virus program updated and running in the background at all times. A firewall too.

[firenze11]

Also, be careful if you're on a Mac and are running Windows on Parallels (or probably Bootcamp for that matter). They can be affected if they run Windows.

[tzvia]

If you keep your AV software up to date, patch your computers, and watch where you surf and what you download and install, your odds of catching something go down. It also helps to have a good quality router/firewall between yourself and the internet, along with a software firewall product. Part of my job is virus control at work; I'm responsible for 3400 desktops, and I cleaned up several Conflickers last week, before the AV vendor had a pattern file for it. Most our viruses (really worms and trojans these days), come in from our 700 laptop users who take their machines outside our proxy/perimeter, get infected, then bring the machine back in. Once they are outside, we can't control how/where they are used.

I clean malicious software for a living, and while Conflicker sounded really bad in the news, it was an easy one to clean up manually. I've seen far worse.

[emily_in_nc]

Be careful. There are some sites out there that claim to help you find out if you have the worm- and they are actually set up to infect you with it when you go to the site and start clicking around following instructions.

Sorry Lisa -- I should have noted that the site I linked to was provided in the "Windows Secrets" newsletter I get weekly. It's legit, well-respected, and hasn't steered me wrong in years of reading. They sent an entire issue about Conficker within the past week, and the site in my post above was one they mentioned. It's legit. But I do completely agree with what you say and would never have gone there if I hadn't read about it in Windows Secrets. I've been online for fourteen years and have never been infected because I am cautious to the point of paranoia -- and I'm a software developer myself.