Conficker...anything we need to know?
 

Maybe it's a nonissue....but to be honest I hadn't even heard of this thing before a couple days ago

Can someone with more knowledge than me about this stuff tell those who may not know anything about it whether or not there's something they should be doing in the next 24 hours or so to thwart any potential problems? Or is this just another overhyped nonissue....

Businesses worldwide are under attack from a highly infectious computer worm that has infected almost 9 million PCs, according to antivirus company F-Secure.
That number has more than tripled over the last four days alone, 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.
According to the Internet Storm Center, which tracks virus infections and Internet attacks, Conficker can spread in three ways.
First, it attacks a vulnerability in the Microsoft Server service. Computers without the October patch can be remotely attacked and taken over.
Second, Conficker can attempt to guess or 'brute force' Administrator passwords used by local networks and spread through network shares.
And third, the worm infects removable devices and network shares with an autorun file that executes as soon as a USB drive or other infected device is connected to a victim PC.
Conficker and other worms are typically of most concern to businesses that don't regularly update the desktops and servers in their networks. Once one computer in a network is infected, it often has ready access to other vulnerable computers in that network and can spread rapidly.
Home computers, on the other hand, are usually protected by a firewall and are less at risk. However, a home network can suffer as well. For example, a laptop might pick up the worm from a company network and launch attacks at home.
The most critical and obvious protection is to make sure the Microsoft patch is applied. Network administrators can also use a blocklist provided by F-Secure to try and stop the worm's attempts to connect to Web sites.
And finally, you can disable Autorun so that a PC won't suffer automatic attack from an infected USB drive or other removable media when it's connected. The Internet Storm Center links to one method for doing so at http://nick.brown.free.fr/blog/2007/10/memory-stick-worms.html, but the instructions involve changing the Windows registry and should only be attempted by adminstrators or tech experts. Comments under those instructions also list other potential methods for disabling autorun.

Pretty simple way to see if you have the bug or not.

Try updating your PC Via Windows Update - If it updates your fine, if it doesn't well then... Scream.

well, I dealt with a virut thing just this past weekend....and so ended up running quite a few different scans, updates, etc to (as far as I know other than some software to reinstall) get rid of it......I come back clean, but windows update has ALWAYS struggled to run for me...so hopefully there's other 'tests' :p

The Mac has been problem free for over a year.

Serious.

Kinda' nostalgic to remember the days of all that update & error/freeze stuff.

Let me ask around the shop and see what I come up with... :p

Hey,

Check out this page.

http://www.confickerworkinggroup.org

The Repair Tools link on the left side of the page has several removal tools.

A port scan could also let you know if anything crazy is up...

If anything other then your typical ports are open then there might be a problem.

First of all, Mac is Crap.

Secondly, nobody writes viruses for Mac's because the Mac is so under-used [for good reason], that the virus would never spread.

Nick

Well... it is nice to have crap that never breaks down, as opposed to the decade (plus) of excellence that constantly did, in every version, and required an IT degree to get any 2 components to work together.

Until they eventually broke down again.

And again.

And again.

Haven't had to spend a cent on software, either.

Nick, I know some Mac users that swear by them....and wouldn't trade for anything else under any circumstances. The Ole Trucker :) was one of them.

the biggest problems with mac is they scare the crap out of me. i just can't get used to the idea of placing my drive in the trash can in order to eject it. every time (no matter how many times i do it) i'm afraid i'm about to format it and wipe it clean.

i suppose preference lays primarily with the reason for use. pc's by far are the best option for business applications (let's face it most software is written for the PC in the business world) but if you're into productivity (movie making, photo editing, cad, etc) then there's really no better option than a mac (or at least i've been told).

Ah, the old PC vs Mac.......

Spin it around however you want to, it all comes down to 2 basic things- personal preference and personal history. I KNOW I'm not alone in being one whose initial computer experience (beyond a Commodore-64) was with a PC because at THAT time almost verbatim what Bill says is what he sees as the positive for Mac over PC was seen in reverse- early Macs had a real knack for locking up...what was it, a time bomb that appeared on the screen? Also at that time, the amount of software available for PC was growing at a MUCH faster rate than those for Mac.

But that's nearly 20 years ago. Now? I'm still on a PC for 2 primary reasons- I'm far more used to them...and they're cheaper. But even those lines have gotten thinner in recent years. Let's face it, Mac's have advanced in ways PCs have not- hell, to this day (from what I understand) Microsoft's own OS Vista actually runs cleaner on a Mac than on the PC it was designed for. That being the case, there's no weight to the argument that there's more software available for PC since a Mac can RUN that same software plus its own.

No, there may have been a time I would have 'poo poo'd' any attempt to turn me into a Mac person....those days are gone. I'm still a PC person now simply because...I haven't found proper motivation to change, NOT because I can't buy the argument TO change.

....something about old dogs and new tricks fits here

But I didn't start this thread for this debate....I wanted to bring to light a situation that, while it may be nothing, could potentially cause some of us a great deal of anxiety in the next few days.

Thanks for the advice. :thumbs:

AMEN! :cheers: