Winter is over and hopefully cold and flu season has left with it but don't relax just yet. Another virus is about to wreak havoc on unsuspecting individuals very soon and no over the counter medicine is going to save you this time.
A malicious computer virus could be preparing to attack your PC on April Fools Day and odds are likely you won't be doing much laughing if you're one of the millions expected to be attacked.
The Conficker C Internet Worm is the name of this infectious devil and it's a new virus that latches itself on to Windows based PC's thanks to unreliable websites and infected downloads. It exploits weaknesses in Microsoft's operating system and conceals itself on a hard drive, laying dormant until April 1 when it will "call home" and search for new instructions from its originator.
Now we've seen viruses come and viruses go since the early days of computer use but what's scary about Conficker C is that no one knows what it does or what it intends to do. It may prove to be the world's biggest April Fool's joke, or it could have the potential to take over your machine and steal all your personal data.
Launched in October, the worm works in two stages, the second of which is anticipated to commence on April 1. The first stage is to go out and infect as many unprotected computers as possible. The next stage is for that whole network of computers, what's called a 'botnet', to try to reach out and communicate with a centralized command and control centre which will give it some direction. To hide its tracks, the worm creates a list of tens of thousands of domain names, any of which could become a command and control centre. This makes it harder for those in the security community to really isolate the command and control centre.
Once a computer is infected with Conficker, it can be controlled by the creator of the worm. The infected computers are used to send spam to millions of other Internet users or to directly send the virus to other computers. The infected computers form a botnet, and this network can then be used to gather personal information--anything from your personal browsing history to your credit card numbers.
Scary isn't it? All you can do is wait until April 1st and see what happens. Hopefully you've taken some preventative measures since owning your computer such as keeping antivirus software up to date, use a good firewall and have some form of anti-spyware software installed. But of course, even all of those precautionary measures don't provide 100% security.
Some people are saying this could be a serious worm threat that could call home and install something potentially serious, while others are more optimistic and think it might just be a dark April Fool's joke with a sole purpose of putting everyone on edge.
Not everyone has to worry. The program does not infect Macintosh or Linux-based computers which is yet another reason why I can't wait to purchase a new iMac. The only problem with Mac computers is the insane cost.
An estimated 12 million Windows based PCs around the world are already hosting the worm since its launch in October. Microsoft has since offered a $250,000 reward for any information leading to the capture of the worm's originator.
I have read that for PC users running retail versions of Windows the virus is preventable with a downloadable security patch from Microsoft. You can download it from here if you haven't already.
Good luck and Happy April Fools Day.
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