PC Virus 'Time Bomb' Set to Go Off at Any Moment

[Sioux]

Found this article on foxnews.com and thought I'd share.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511813,00.html

It talks about the Conficker virus that could cause a global computer meltdown; it's set to be officially activated tomorrow. No one knows what the virus is going to do and what these bad guys are planning to do with it.
It's estimated that five to ten million computers are infected with it already. It has spread to governmental institutions, including the British and French militaries, and corporations around the world. Microsoft even has a link that IT professionals can click on to find out how they can protect their companies from this virus and they've offered a 250,000 reward for the prosecution of these cyber criminals.
The article gives a link on how to protect yourself from it as well.

Oh, and if you get an Autoplay pop-up and you're asked to install or run program:
Open folder to view files
Publisher not specified

DON'T click on it. That's how the virus spreads into your computer.

Instead, go to the general option section just right below and click:
Open folder to veiw files
using Window Explorer.

This is all stated on Microsoft's security page.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/comput ... icker.mspx

[Terastas]

There was another article on the news earlier today saying that you could check to see if your computer is infected by going to the homepages of McAfee, Norton or some other security program. Supposedly if your computer is infected, the virus will attempt to block those websites.

[Lupin]

April first is just when conflicker.c starts looking for updates. It doesn't mean that it will actually start finding any updates at this time.

[takyoji]

Ahh yes; *relaxes* I have Linux. Quite nice not having to worry about ALL of Windows malware at all. Besides, I also have basic virtualization software (just VirtualBox) and OpenBSD (only 3 vulnerabilities found in +15 years, which are obviously patched) at hand in case if the situation became drastic.

As for the whole Conficker case, it could even be something a little overemphasized by the media, and seems to be just promoting Symantec from my other observations (I can't remember if Norton is the anti-malware solution that has had a terrible reputation; made by Symantec).