Has your computer been infected recently?
Last month I wrote about the Conflicker Infection that has been the topic of many security experts. Anyone who received an update patch from Microsoft last fall should be safe but apparently, plenty of people aren’t updating regularly.
Microsoft has recognized this infection is still around and has provided a fix along with additional information at http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx Thanks to Brett Roberts in Auckland, New Zealand for the tip.
Is it that bad?
The French publisher Libération has reported the Conficker worm disrupted computers used by the Ministry of Defense in France and grounded the Navy's Dassault Rafale aircraft.
Last Friday the City of Houston Courts System had been infected and shut itself down for the day. While they expect the court system to be up and running on Monday, many expect to find Conficker popping up on other city systems. While I typically recommend waiting a week or so for Microsoft’s Windows Updates, this is one update too many people missed.
Additional Help
If you use OpenDNS, which I recommended last year, you’ll soon have additional protection. Starting Monday, OpenDNS will offer a feature to help administrators detect local machines which have been infected and will block machines from phoning home their payload. This is an entirely new direction for OpenDNS but given the scope of Conficker I think they may be on the right track. If you missed my post on OpenDNS you can read more at http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/2008/03/speed-up-internet-access-with-opendns.html
Update 2/10: Reports out of Houston now indicate the city's infection was in fact W32/Virut.n a variant of the virus Virut. This is contrary to news stories still being filed. The city had been using antivirus software from McAfee which did not include a signature file for this infection. Total down time was 4 days.
PC World reports, OpenDNS has partnered with our comrades at Kaspersky to obtain updated lists of malicious IP addesses.
Update 2/12: To show how serious they think Conficker is, Microsoft has announced a $250,000 reward towards the arrest and conviction of the folks responsible for this virus.
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/feb09/02-12ConfickerPR.mspx
Conficker Judgement Day on April 1st
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