Conficker Virus

Lying dormant on three million personal computers worldwide is the Conficker Virus. Are you ready for its arrival?

• "This Worm, detected as Win32/Conficker.C, is getting ready for April Fool’s Day on 1 April, although it definitely won’t be fooling around. On that day" (The Tech Herald)


• Download your licensed version of McAfee Total Protection today and ensure that you are fully protected

This 1st April the Conficker virus is expected to active on computers around the world. Nobody is exactly sure what to expect from the arrival of the virus – the scale of the damage that it will cause, or the panic that it might excite- but the international technology community is keeping a keen eye on developments.

According to a report in the Tech Herald,

"This Worm, detected as Win32/Conficker.C, is getting ready for April Fool’s Day on 1 April, although it definitely won’t be fooling around. On that day, Conficker.C will commence its attempt to generate 50,000 URLs daily and try to access (download or report back to) 500 of them. It is a clever strategy, but the security industry is certainly on the lookout," CA said at the time.

In January 2009, The Guardian described the Conficker worm as ‘the worst Windows worm for years’. It is the names given to a complex algorithm that, according to technology experts, is lying dormant on just about three million PCs worldwide. When triggered the Conficker worm can prove very dangerous. It runs executable files on your computer and generates thousands of new possible new domain names that it can use to skip from one part of the Internet to another. Antivirus technicians say that it can be very difficult to counter.

A recent news story has suggested that the virus has grown even more dangerous in the last few months. It now attacks antivirus software and has the potential to generate many more infected domains. Symantec have stated that the old limit of 250 infected websites has risen sharply, and now the more dangerous algorithm can generate as many as 50,000 new domains in day.

Conficker is a complex and dangerous virus. And at the moment controlling it has become a cat and mouse game.

If your PC is infected with the Conficker virus, instructions for its removal can be found on McAfee’s official webpage. But to ensure that you are not caught by viruses similar to the Conficker worm, you need to download relevant and robust antivirus security.

One of the most effective antivirus security packages available on the Internet today is McAfee’s Total Protection package. This gives you 12 in 1 security, backs up all of your files, secures your identity, and establishes a home network protection. McAfee Total Protection is an award winning package that will limit any online danger that you might face.

Three steps to ensure your safety:

1. Run a thorough virus scan on your computer (Head to the official McAfee site for free tools)
2. Ensure that you have adequate protection for all of your online activity
3. Keep abreast of the latest threats by reading the McAfee Security blog.