Microsoft Hopes It Has a Winning Hand to Stop Conficker Worm
Microsoft Hopes It Has a Winning Hand to Stop Conficker Worm
Posted 02/13/2009 at 3:13pm
| by Mark Edward Soper
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The folks in Redmond are tired of hearing about the Conficker worm. Although Microsoft issued a patch back in October, Conficker's infected over 9 million PCs and crippled French and British military assets. Redmond's answer: a cool $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Conficker's creators.
And, that's not all Microsoft has up its sleeve.
- Ace number two: it's formed a posse to help stop Conficker in its tracks. Members of the Microsoft posse include antivirus, domain name providers, and research organizations such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), VeriSign, NeuStar, CNNIC, Afilias, Public Internet Registry, Global Domains International, M1D Global, AOL, Symantec, F-Secure, ISC, Georgia Tech, the Shadowserver Foundation, Arbor Networks, and Support Intelligence.
- Ace number three: a special Conficker website that provides more information about the Conficker (aka Downadup), including manual removal tools.
What's the fourth ace in Redmond's hand? You. If you are managing home or office systems that aren't yet protected against Conficker, get busy. Microsoft's Conficker website provides the links and tools you need to protect your PCs, but they don't work unless you use them.
Illustration by the author.
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chrlesdikkenson
October 02, 2009 at 12:27am
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Naturally, prevention's way better than curing a nasty worm outbreak.
To learn more about preventing infections, and for links to additional
removal tools.
jesicajame
May 02, 2009 at 8:04am
The antispyware solution from Search-and-destroy is one of the best scanners I’ve found so far to help me clean out those nasty little bugs that slows down my computer and causes it to freeze up or crash. It keeps my computer running like new and best of all it cost less than many of the other better known scanners that have been available for awhile now. I was glad that I finally found a scan that works and that’s so affordable. Search-and-destroy Antispyware is the best scanner I’ve used so far and you can find out more information by simply visiting http://www.Search-and-destroy.com.
winmaster
February 15, 2009 at 4:57pm
This is all nice and all, but is there a tool to check to see if you are infected with conficker? I've used my flash drive with my compters at school and they only get patched about once every 2 years. My computer isn't showing any symptoms, but can I really be sure I'm not infected?
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Marcus_Soperus
February 16, 2009 at 6:26am
Here's a link to a free Conficker detection program http://www.anti-spyware-101.com/remove-conficker. The vendor offers a paid removal tool, but other vendors offer free removal tools.
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It's amazing how illogical a business built on binary logic can be.
Keith E. Whisman
February 13, 2009 at 8:41pm
Will Microsoft pay the people responsible for Conficker if they turn themselves in? Hell if the reward is high enough I'll take responsibility for anything that doesn't have a prison sentence.
Antilogic81
February 13, 2009 at 10:58pm
For damaging military property I think a jail sentence is warranted.
almax
February 13, 2009 at 7:51pm
I've been waiting for fully functional 64bit video drivers for over 2 years. I assume you guys have them now?
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