computer virus

[jayne]

any one heard of a new virus coming out the april 1st....My friend just called and said that yahoo had warned of one that will lock down your computer.....anyone know of this?

[UndercovrAngel]

Beware Conficker worm come April 1
Tue Mar 24, 2009 6:21PM EDT - YAHOO.COM

In an event that hits the computer world only once every few years, security experts are racing against time to mitigate the impact of a bit of malware which is set to wreak havoc on a hard-coded date. As is often the case, that date is April 1.

Malware creators love to target April Fool's Day with their wares, and the latest worm, called Conficker C, could be one of the most damaging attacks we've seen in years.

Conficker first bubbled up in late 2008 and began making headlines in January as known infections topped 9 million computers. Now in its third variant, Conficker C, the worm has grown incredibly complicated, powerful, and virulent... though no one is quite sure exactly what it will do when D-Day arrives.

Thanks in part to a quarter-million-dollar bounty on the head of the writer of the worm, offered by Microsoft, security researchers are aggressively digging into the worm's code as they attempt to engineer a cure or find the writer before the deadline.

What's known so far is that on April 1, all infected computers will come under the control of a master machine located somewhere across the web, at which point anything's possible. Will the zombie machines become denial of service attack pawns, steal personal information, wipe hard drives, or simply manifest more traditional malware pop-ups and extortion-like come-ons designed to sell you phony security software? No one knows.

Conficker is clever in the way it hides its tracks because it uses an enormous number of URLs to communicate with HQ. The first version of Conficker used just 250 addresses each day -- which security researchers and ICANN simply bought and/or disabled -- but Conficker C will up the ante to 50,000 addresses a day when it goes active, a number which simply can't be tracked and disabled by hand.

At this point, you should be extra vigilant about protecting your PC: Patch Windows completely through Windows Update and update your anti-malware software as well. Make sure your antivirus software is actually running too, as Conficker may have disabled it.

Microsoft also offers a free online safety scan, which should be able to detect all Conficker versions.

Angel ^j^

[Still in Limbo]

I'm not Very Savvy on Computer Terms, but My Sister and Brother-In-Laws are Computer Techs., and they have Us Set Up, I will try and Get this Right! When You Enter the Internet, the Page You Use, such as Internet Explorer, etc. We Use Mozilla Fire Fox, because it actually has Tech.'s Worldwide, and before Many Viruses, etc. ever Hit the U.S. Fire Fox has People around the World Detecting these Bugs, or what ever the Terms are and Work on getting them Disabled Quickly. We also have Avast! which can be Downloaded Free for it's Website, and it Runs 7 Scanners to catch this Stuff! And We also have Downloaded and Use Adaware so We can Self-Scan Once a Week or so!! As I said I'm not Up on Terms, so Please Correct Me as needed, but We have been able to Avoid Many Viruses with these Tools! Hope it Helps!!

[Manley2]

Is the normal antivirus programs detecting this and getting rid of it?

[UndercovrAngel]

Manley2 Wrote:Is the normal antivirus programs detecting this and getting rid of it?

Manley,

If you read my above post to Jayne, at the end, it tells you what to do in order to keep from getting this worm.

I not only have Microsoft, but AVG, spyware detector and ad-ware, and one heck of a firewall on my computer since I got the virus last year. They will play hell getting through on my computer.

Angel ^j^

[Manley2]

But I wanted to know if NORMAL antivirus worked to stop this or would I need to download what sounded like 4 or 5 kinds of stuff to stop it

[UndercovrAngel]

You need to make sure that you have all windows patches in place (if you are using a windows computer..otherwise you would have to check with Vista. You also need a good mal-ware as well as a good anti-virus that you make sure is running when you go to sleep tomorrow night. Other than that, you should be fine.

And heck, with the warning already out, they may change the date for the conficker and we could all be worrying about nothing right now. Don't I just wish !!!

Angel ^j^

[jayne]

are they sure this isnt a April fools joke on us?

[hurt at work]

started by jayne lol,lol.

[Bummer Knees]

I have Norton 360 on my computer.

Where do you get mal-ware, is it something you purchase or download?

And what is a patch?

Mine is a windows XP, had it for 6 yrs, works great for what I need.