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Conficker Virus Overview

April 1st has come and gone and the much hyped Conficker virus attack never came (Conficker even managed to get on the radar of 60 Minutes in a recent segment). Does that mean there was never a risk or the hype was a hoax? No. According to security experts the virus authors may be sitting tight until the media wave passes. The tens of millions of computers believed to be infected with Conficker (and related worms such as Downadup and Kido) remain infected.

The infected computers collectively form a "botnet" that can be controlled by hackers lurking in the shadows of the Internet. What do botnets do? That's the challenge - just about anything the hackers want - from stealing banking information to flooding websites with bogus traffic.

Conficker has variants (the latest being Conficker.C) and is related to other worms such as Kido and Win32.Worm.Downadup.Gen (aka Downadup). The virus authors adapt as security experts close loopholes - it is unlikely computers will ever be completely bulletproof.

What can I do about Conficker and other virus infections?

support.com can help you secure your computer - making sure that your computer is clean from virus infections and up-to-date with the latest Microsoft security patches. Conficker can spread to other computers via removable drives such as USB sticks (thumb drives) and portable backup devices - we can make sure those are clean as well.

If you believe your computer is infected we recommend an expert clean your computer. Sophisticated viruses like Conficker are designed to be hard to detect and even harder to remove. We can also provide practical advice in plain English on how to avoid reinfection.

Symptoms that your computer may have a virus infection:

• Windows Update has not run for months and/or is disabled (a Microsoft patch released on October 23, 2008 closed the security gap - but Conficker can make it look like you have the patch even though you don't)
• Access to popular websites, in particular security websites, is blocked (examples include McAfee, Symantec, Grisoft, WindowsUpdate and many others) - take the Conficker Eye Chart test to see if this is the case
• Security software is disabled and/or not updating normally
• Virus removal tools / scanners immediately stop working (Conficker looks for and kills a wide range of virus scanning and removal tools)
• Frequent crashes or lockups
• Your Internet browser keeps redirecting to websites different than what you typed in
• Windows Update errors prevent the latest security updates from being applied
• Frequent security warnings or pop-ups requesting payment for software you didn't download
• Very slow computer performance

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