Conficker Advice of the Day

The Associate Press says “Don’t fret about Conficker.” The article says that most everyday users will not even know they are infected…and then offers this awesome bit of advice:

The best remedy is to have a friend — whose computer is not infected — download a removal tool from Microsoft or one of the antivirus vendors. Then that person should e-mail the tool to you.

Yeah, like opening every attachment sent to you by friends didn’t get you in this situation in the first place.

I don't think it will be as bad as they were trying to make it out to be. Sure it COULD be huge, but since they have removal tools out there, I'd assume that anyone with an up to date machine as far as patches and antivirus software goes should be fairly safe from this worm. Those that do have it, probably already have a pretty messed up machine anyways and wouldn't notice a difference.

I wish the media would stay out of this shit, they have caused me the biggest headach today

It will be the April Fool's Day joke...either way.

If it is a big deal...April Fools!!!

If it turns out to be nothing...April Fools!!!

Originally Posted by Steve

It will be the April Fool's Day joke...either way.

If it is a big deal...April Fools!!!

If it turns out to be nothing...April Fools!!!

I don't think it's really considered an April Fool's "joke" if everyone thinks it's going to happen. Only if there was this big deal about it happening, and then nothing happened, would it truly be an April Fool's joke.

The point is to be fooled. If you already expect it to happen and it does, you're not being fooled.

Originally Posted by MavericK96

I don't think it's really considered an April Fool's "joke" if everyone thinks it's going to happen. Only if there was this big deal about it happening, and then nothing happened, would it truly be an April Fool's joke.

The point is to be fooled. If you already expect it to happen and it does, you're not being fooled.

Even if it turned out to happen it is still a joke to the people that wrote it. So either way it is a Apirl Fools joke to somebody.

I think I've been hiding under a rock... WTF is Conficker and what's supposed to happen tomorrow?

That second bit of advice is ridiculous. So, it's a good idea to have a "friend" (read stereotypical compugeek) download a tool and e-mail it. Most compu-illiterate befriend other compu-illiterates. Also, the compu-knowing quickly realize they are being used and abused. Sigh... The media and their dog wagging.

@djbon2112

Conficker is one of the most notorious viruses of all time. Look it up. It's supposed to do whatever it is supposed to do tomorrow. Get patched up!

I plan on wearing a festive hat tomorrow. "Happy Conficker Day" is written across the front.

I'm hedging my bet on it being a big hoax/benign. Otherwise, tomorrow is a nightmare for me and the rest of my shop.

It would also be funny if it were actually a more playful bit of malware...and when it "contacts the central server" as the news has been reporting, it just displays the best whopper of a joke for the user...gives them a giggle, and then ends.

Now THAT is an april fools joke.

Either way, got IT into the news which is great, after all the banks and car manufacturers hogging the limelight.

And heck...if it is the real deal and as nasty as some fear...it'll be another boon, because even more people and businesses will probably take IT security a little more seriously.

Updated

I have not heard of an April 1st virus in a while that was this big...

BREAKING NEWS: The media has created something, out of nothing.

The media knows next to nothing about this thing (just like 90% of computer users). I would like to share the following with [H] users...

Theres a rumor around my university that "conficker" was created by one of our computer science students and/or a company in the immediate area. I was dealing with a file called rYan.exe in early January that spread to flash drives when you plugged them into infected machines. Removing it was as simple as deleting the AUTOINI hidden folder on a flash drive... People would then bring their infected flash drives to other public computers, their home desktops, email them to others, thus, spreading the .exe.

About a month after this, Symmantec and the other MalWare companies updated their definitions to automatically remove it.

The only ill affect from having this file on your flash drive (that I could tell) was preventing access to your flash drive through double clicking on it in Windows Explorer. Instead, right clicking on the flash drive icon, then clicking 'Explore' let you into your drive. This "worm" is not that smart (unless there is some hidden DNS coding).

I think this "worm" is a case of someone doing it for the sake of doing it... to prove they can do it... but I could be wrong.

QUICK! SOMEONE GET CNN, NBC, AND CBS ON THE LINE! THIS IS BREAKING NEWS!

On a serious note... If someone would like more details, such as screenshots, the actual .exe, or anything, let me know.

Holy tripple post... I did not mean to do that, sorry. Can a mod delete two of those please?

Not a damn thing happened yesterday, I knew it was a crock of shit. +1 for the media scaring the gullible people of America

Of course the media is covering their asses for sensationalizing. Some news site are saying "well ok so maybe nothing happened, but it could just mean that the creator of the virus decided not to access anyone's computer, so it might not be over yet."

source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/01/t...ses/index.html

"By no means do I think we're in the clear," said Paul Henry, a forensics and security analyst for Lumension Security, based in Phoenix, Arizona.

On Wednesday, a master computer gained control of an estimated 5 million "zombie" PCs infected with the worm, experts said.

Security experts fear the author of the malicious computer program essentially could do anything with those Windows-based machines.

No attempts by the author to upload anything had been noted as of 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, according to Phil Porras, program director at nonprofit research institute SRI International.

Originally Posted by Flexion

@djbon2112

Conficker is one of the most notorious viruses of all time. Look it up. It's supposed to do whatever it is supposed to do tomorrow. Get patched up!

Well, considering nothing happened, and I run Ubuntu/Debian on everything anyways, I guess I'm good (see my sig)

Kind of a funny coincidence that the single largest "Cyber Security Act" is on the table in the Senate right as the media is overly sensationalizing the "Conficker" worm. Keep in mind that if this bill was passed, odds are that a lot of private networks would of been shutdown because this worm was going to effect most of the computers on the planet... if you believe the hype. Even my folks who just learned how to use e-mail called me and asked me what they had to do to keep themselves and their business pcs safe. Wait till the RIAA or MPAA get their hands on government monitored data... I bet you almost any modern pc with a broadband connection is attacked 100's if not 1000's of times a day from old worms/viruses/trojans. I know for a fact that I have had viruses on new installs of Windows between the time I do the first Windows Update and I install the antivirus(usually around 30-40 minutes) just from being connected to the internet. So the DOD number isn't at all suprising considering that most of the attacks are basic run of the mill old virus attempts. With over 200,000 know computer viruses out there performing multiple attacks a day it isn't a staggering number.

We got hit here at the hospital and it literally fried the OS on one of our servers and shutdown all access to semi-critical functions for 3 days.