How to Protect Yourself From the Conficker Virus

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511870,00.html?sPage=fnc/scitech/cybersecurity

This week the news has been discussing about the Conficker Worm that was to plague our computers on April 1, 2009. This Fox news article explains how to protect you from the Conficker Virus. It is said that “The Conficker worm, a nasty computer infection that has poisoned millions of PCs, will start ramping up its efforts Wednesday to use those machines for cybercrimes. It's unclear whether everyday PC users will even notice, but this is as good an excuse as any to make sure your computer is clean. There are some easy ways to figure out whether a computer has the Conficker worm, and free tools available for getting rid of it.” It also explains that there is “A list of the free Conficker removal programs is available on the Web site of the Conficker Working Group, an alliance of companies fighting the worm. The removal programs will take care of themselves, for the most part, scanning your system and purging the worm.” I would suggest everyone who doesn’t want the virus to check out the web site or get the removal programs just in case.

Businesses worldwide are at higher risk to the get the virus. In the PCWorld article it puts into clear words, “That number has more than tripled over the last four days alone from January 16, 2009, says F-Secure, leaping from 2.4 million to 8.9 million infected PCs. Once a machine is infected, the worm can download and install additional malware from attacker-controlled Web sites, according to the company. Since that could mean anything from a password stealer to remote control software, a Conflicker-infected PC is essentially under the complete control of the attackers.” This virus or next virus to come could hurt US in a major way due to the economy being in recession. So everyone should see help in finding a way to protect themselves from getting the Conficker Virus.


References: FoxNews.com http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511870,00.html?sPage=fnc/scitech/cybersecurity

PCWorld.com http://www.pcworld.com/article/157876/protecting_against_the_rampant_conficker_worm.html