The Conficker Worm – What You Can Do

If you watched 60 Minutes on CBS this evening, you may have seen this piece on the new conficker worm which is scheduled to do something on April 1st. Even the security companies don’t know what it may do on April 1st.

Conficker is spread by exploiting several weaknesses in Microsoft’s Windows operating system. (The program does not infect Macintosh or Linux-based computers.)

It is a very virulent security breach that can read keystrokes from your computer, even capturing your passwords and bank information. The most recent versions of the program have significantly changed to even remove commercial antivirus software and to turn off Microsoft’s security update service. It can also block communications with Web services provided by security companies to update their products. It will also open holes in firewalls in an effort to improve its communication with other infected computers.
It can be spread on social networking sites such as MySpace through a message from a “friend” or it might infect a computer if you download free music or games.

Here is a link to download a program to detect conficker on your computer.

Here is a link to remove conficker if it is on your computer.