Symantec: Conficker Still Spreading
PrintIn just a few days from now, we'll reach the one-year anniversary of the Downadup/Conficker threat's April 1, 2009 trigger date, and just like last year, April Fool's Day will likely pass without seeing the Internet come crashing down.
At the same time, Symantec says Conficker continues to spread, whether we know what its creators had in mind for an end-game or not.
"Today, one year later, we know that the criminal(s) behind Downadup/Conficker still have the keys to some 6.5 million of these computers, which have not been fixed by their owners, leaving them open to be victimized at any time by cybercriminals," Symantec wrote in a blog post. "We're still seeing the .A and .B variants of the worm continue to spread, albeit at a much reduced rate."
According to Symantec, the infected PCs are being "very closely monitored" by law enforcement and the members of the Conficker Working Group, so even though several million PCs remain vulnerable, all the attention is "likely [to] prevent [Conficker's creators] from further playing out their original criminal plans."
Even still, Symantec says we're still not out of the woods.
"These 6.5 million computers infected with Downadup/Conficker are still much like a load gun, waiting to be fired," Symantec warns.
Downadup/Conficker Revisited Video
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Trooper_One
March 30, 2010 at 12:25pm
Don't worry, it won't infect Macs - and if it did, go to Best Buy and they'll advise you to buy a new Apple monitor to squash these bugs.
CentiZen
March 30, 2010 at 11:08am
It dosen't work that way man. Symantec is looking at how many zombies are connecting too a specific server. They don't know any more than that.
SHEILA: AMD X4 965 3.2GHZ ; 4 GB G.SKILL GAMING RAM ; RADEON HD 5770 1GB
CentiZen
March 30, 2010 at 11:09am
I'd rather it be in the hands of a /b/tard that has no idea what to do with it than an actual hacker who knows what a botnet that size is capable of.
SHEILA: AMD X4 965 3.2GHZ ; 4 GB G.SKILL GAMING RAM ; RADEON HD 5770 1GB
compro01
March 29, 2010 at 8:06pm
The vulnerability this damn thing exploits was patched in 2008! People! Update your god damn systems!
TechJunkie
March 29, 2010 at 6:16pm
That sucks. I'm glad I wipe my drives every few months or so and start over. I'm confident none of my PC's are infected. But why O' why don't these cyber idiots just target a MacOSx for once...I mean come on, I would love to see all the apple fritters out there creamin their pants! That would be funny!
TechJunkie
March 30, 2010 at 2:25am
Trust me. It would have a HUGE impact even though it's only 5%. NAH, I really don't care either, but it would make Mr. Jobs and his cronies freak out.
Athlonite
March 29, 2010 at 10:34pm
If you know how many there are then you know who they are why not send them an email or better yet get their ISP to cut them off until the problems sorted or are you afraid people will find out that your AV solution suks
Play till it breaks then learn how to fix it!
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