The Conficker Worm: What Happens Next?

60 Minutes: Computer Worm Could Receive New Instructions On April 1

(CBS)  But according to Symantec's own figures, the hackers are inventing up to 15,000 new infections every day, designed specifically to get around the latest anti-virus protections. Symantec has to send out updates every five minutes.

"You sell the anti-virus, anti-worm stuff. I mean, how do I know you're not just saying, 'Go out and get this,' 'cause you sell it? I mean, you know… there's a sort of conflict of interest here," Stahl pointed out.

"Well look, Lesley, in 60 minutes we are blocking nearly 400,000 threats around the world. If you're goin' out on the Internet and you're not protected, it's like walkin' outta your house and leavin' the door open," Trilling argued.

But Mary Rappaport says all the doors on her home computer were locked tight. She had anti-virus software and a firewall, and so she thought she was safe to do her banking online. But then she noticed something odd going on and called the bank.

"They told me that three charges in the last three days had been made to my account. One for $3,000, one for $4,000, and one for $1,200," she recalled.

Rappaport knew she had to act quickly.

The bank replaced the stolen money and suggested that she merely change her password. That was to be the end of it. But the next day, she was checking her balance. "And I saw $1,000 being moved from my son's savings account into my checking account," she recalled. "Right before my eyes. I saw my money being moved."

A hacker was trying to move all her money into one account, her checking account, to make it easier to transfer overseas. Luckily, the bank was able to freeze her accounts before she lost any more money.

"I had what I thought were adequate protections. You know, I had anti-spyware software," she said. "And anti-virus."

"And I thought I had a good enough firewall. Wrong!" Rappaport told Stahl. "My understanding anyway is that they were able to get some sort of bug onto my system that disabled the ability to update these software programs."

Mary suspects her teenage sons picked up the bug while downloading from music or game Web sites. But it could have come from any number of Web sites.

[ecom2000]

When I saw the 60 Minutes documentary on the Conficker virus and thought I would pass on some information about the prevention and removal of this scary virus.

The virus is stoppable using eScan Anti Virus software and it can be removed using the eScan Anti Virus Utility Tool, which has been available for some months to stop the virus from infecting your computer or the removal of it should a computer be already infected.

We ourselves have been using the virus utility tool to remove the Conficker worm from client?s computers when they are using other brands of anti virus software for a number of months now and those of our client?s who are using eScan have not been infected, including our own computers.

eScan is the only brand of anti virus software to use a revolutionary patented process, MicroWorld Winsock Layer (MWL) to detect dormant and active viruses in real time, which deletes them before they can get through to the hard drive. It also has a host of other features to protect computers, such as, web page content scanning, a powerful firewall, popup blocker, real time virus scanning for all types of viruses (including malware, adware, keyloggers, hacking & spyware), parental control, hourly virus signature updates and real time virus & content scanning (plus much more).

A manual is available http://computersolutionsnz.co.nz/conficker.pdf on the Conficker virus, which covers, a description of the virus, how to protect computer and how to remove the virus. You can download the virus utility tool to remove the virus from this link: http://www.computersolutionsnz.co.nz/mwav.zip.

[canuckuk]

It is shameful for 60 minutes not to say anywhere in its reporting that the Mac and UNIX and LINUX operating systems are immune to the Conficker worm.

This is a legitimately fear based story. It is critical that all exceptions are mentioned. It is ridiculous that they don't mention the types of computers this worm does not infect.

Step it up - rise to a higher journalistic standard and properly report the facts behind this issue.

[riseofthethorax]

PS- I also created the website http://www.chann3lz.com/ , it's a youtube jukebox that anyone can contribute to. The help videos that link off of chann3lz go to my user account.. And now that I know I can put url's in my messages, I can give you a direct link 8^| oh brother..

http://www.youtube.com/user/rofthorax

[riseofthethorax]

What happens next?

EVERYONE SWITCHES TO "UBUNTU LINUX"

It's only the smartest move you'll make. I've been using it for two years, and
had Windows XP before that, for years.

Then you can run Windows in a sandbox environment like VMWare or Innotek Virtualbox..
Where you can run your programs without worrying about what the virus will touch.

But then again, you can do all your web browsing, email and office stuff in Ubuntu, so why would you need to go back to Windows? Serriously..

Games?

Search youtube for user "rofthorax" that is me, I have 370+ videos in my channel, most demonstrating games I can play in WINE, a free program that runs windows programs without using Windows, and without the slowness of an emulation. For instance, the entire "Valve Orange Box" will play in WINE, "Oblivion" runs in wine, Left4Dead does, so does COD4.

And WINE is only getting better..

BTW I watch all my Internet video in Ubuntu Linux, I'm typing this on a Thinkpad T30 I bought for 212 dollars on ebay, and effortlessly installed Ubuntu Linux. I first heard this story from the podcast feed that my audio podcast client "IcePodder" got for me.. Honestly, I never thought I'd be able to maintain the use of Linux, even though I know a lot about computers, but it's not as hard as I thought it would be. It's a learning experience, like any computer operating system, but once your get oriented its like any other.. Just, no viruses!!!

[riseofthethorax]

Ubuntu Linux doesn't have this problem.. Also you can use WINE to run windows programs, but a worm of this kind wouldn't work on WINE because WINE runs programs non-continuously (programs run in a Windows API wrapper, but not in a continuous Windows OS).

Search youtube for UBUNTU Linux. It's much more secure than windows, because it doesn't force you to go looking for software on untrusted sites, software that may contain malware like this.

Not to say that Linux couldn't have a virus, just that given the complexities of Linux, that it is custom compiled for each distribution, it's unlikely that a virus or worm could take advantage of all the Linux distributions. Ubuntu would probably be the first to be hit, as it is the most popular now, but it is a fraction of the popularity of Windows. However Ubuntu is as capable as Windows at the same sorts of chores.

Get a free (forever) copy of Ubuntu Linux today. Google for "Ubuntu" .

[JamesMorehead]

Additional information from support.com on Conficker (written in layman's terms): https://www.support.com/feature/conficker-virus-protection.

[cbsantispin]

To follow up on my comments about IBM selling Linux which by it's very nature is "FREE" based on the way Linux is Licensed, many are realizing big profits and selling "FREE" Linux and making money off Linux anyway, the way companies are getting around the "FREE" Linux License is by so-called "adding value" in the form of support or extra features not available in standard "open" Linux. But this still violates the overall spirit and philosophy of Linux which is a "free open source community and user supported environment!". IBM is notorious at selling value added "FREE" Linux and making big profits and while IBM is in the "black" and doing well, corporate greed is stil the order of the day, for example IBM is laying off 5000 U.S. workers and outsourcing their jobs to India! IBM is offering some of those being laying off jjobs in India if they move to and work in India at a quarter of their current salaries! Imagine if you worked for IBM making $65,000 a year and IBM told you in order to keep your job you had to move to India and now make $17,000??? That's whats going on folks, check out this NBC Evening News Report @ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#30036628 and see for your self! Pure Corporate greed at the expense of American jobs, no patriotism at all.

[cbsantispin]

Microsoft set up shop in the nation of India "big". India adopted Microsoft and Windows hook, line and sinker! Microsoft is just as big in India as it is in the United States. So what's the point? The point is, many U.S. Corporations outsourced their IT work to India because of cheap labor and continue to do so. A lot of personal and private data about Americans is in India's computers, not America's computers! Initially most of this data was located in American computers located in the U.S., where India IT workers logged in to American computers from India, but to speed up processing time, American data ended up being stored in India! Yes, a lot of America's privacy and corporate data and the information it creates is in India "physically"! The computers with America's data located in India may be classified as American owned computers, but I personally define American computers as being located "physically" in the U.S., its a subtle fine point that matters because of legal issues. In this matter of Windows being unsafe and vulnerable to Unix and Linux access, how does the U.S. know its data in India's Windows computers is not being accessed and hacked? It's a fair question.

[OS11]

no, tiotom77 it's nothing like 3 mile island, it's more of a fender bender at a mcdonalds parking lot.

this worm wouldn't affect banks or medical establishments, it only would touch non-savvy computer owners. most banks and medical systems are on Unix, not windows so there is little to worry about.

[tiotom77]

Just Like Three Mile Island, this Conficker worm is a wake up call.We shouldn't get too reliant on computer filing systems. Our financial records are already available over the internet and soon our medical records will be computerized. We better keep paper backups.