conficker

Weak security passwords and overlooked security updates have kept Conficker, a malware 'worm' first reported in 2008, alive and well. According to Microsoft, Conficker has not only survived, it is steadily infecting more corporate networks all the ... time. The Conficker worm was first detected in November, 2008. It targeted networks and tried to penetrate them by guessing at their login passwords. At this, it was surprisingly successful. The main reason for its success was that so many business users employ extremely weak passwords, including '12345', the word 'Password' and the default password ... (view more)

Though it's been out of the headlines for some time, the Conficker virus is alive and well. Researchers say it appears the virus has kept working despite little if any attention from its creators. According to Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure, one of the ... firms investigating the virus, there are still more than 5.5 million computers infected by Conficker, with Brazil, Vietnam and China particularly affected. That may be because computer owners there are less likely to be able to afford security software and more likely to be running pirated copies of Windows which are less likely to update Microsoft ... (view more)

Since it was first introduced several months ago, the dreaded Conficker worm has been synonymous with wreaking havoc on computers worldwide. Almost no one would ever consider its creation a "good" thing, but that may be changing, if only in one ... isolated incident. Ironically the virus, warned to be harmful to millions of people around the globe, has actually made a few hundred fans in England. The warm reception came following a planned attack on Manchester City Council (MCC). According to the Manchester Evening News, a total of 1,609 traffic tickets could not be issued within the 28 ... (view more)

Although it's been quiet in recent weeks, the dreaded Conficker worm is far from done its reign of terror. In fact, never before has this virus caused so much havoc than when the news mediums stopped printing urgent warnings about its dangers. Now, ... as the reports of countless victims come pouring in, security officials are getting a clear sense of just how many computers are infected on a daily basis. According to one security expert, Conficker infiltrates as many as 50,000 new PCs every day. International Incident What makes matters worse is that the virus has no specific target area, as all ... (view more)

Last week the latest variant of the Conficker worm surfaced -- and just to prove it, the worm infected at least 700 computers at the University of Utah. According to school officials, two main systems are affected by the infection: the university's ... three hospitals, but also its adjoined medical, nursing, and pharmacy colleges. The tip-off was a simple one most of us are quick to associate with trouble: staff noticed something was amiss when Internet service slowed considerably and email correspondence bogged down altogether. (Source: allheadlinenews.com ) Researchers are still not entirely ... (view more)

It's been over a week now since the April Fool's Conficker debacle passed without any noticeable disaster. However, the threat itself is still very present, and researchers are now finding out exactly what the motivation is for a future attack: ... cash. It would seem that if one stumbled upon a mysterious, universal hacker rulebook there would be two major motivations for their craft: 1) anarchy/destruction and 2) money. Researchers studying Conficker's spread are finding that, surprisingly, the worm might be more about the latter than previously thought. (Source: informationweek.com ) Conficker ... (view more)

Security experts have put together some intriguing statistics about the Conficker virus, including the total spread of the worm and the worst-hit country. It seems Vietnam has seen the most serious invasion, while four per cent of all computer ... infections are related to Conficker. The figures come from OpenDNS, a firm which offers DNS (Domain Name System) resolution services. This is the process of mapping a website name (such as www.infopackets.com ) to the actual IP address where the website physically exists. Because Conficker interferes with this process, the firm has plenty of data to ... (view more)

So, a couple days have come and gone and we're without any real evidence that the Conficker worm was a legitimate threat. Was it all just a bunch of hooey? Maybe, but if there's one thing we should take away from the debacle, it's that the problem ... isn't yet solved, even if there was no disaster. Most security experts were just happy to breathe a sigh of relief when April 1st came and went without planes falling out of the sky. "I'm not sure what to think," remarked BT chief security officer Bruce Schneier. "In a sense, the whole Conficker thing just puts a name on a general problem." (Source ... (view more)

Conficker SWS Scanner SWS is an easy way to test networks for Conficker, thanks to researchers at The Honeynet Project. According to Dan Kaminsky, "What we've found is pretty cool: Conficker actually changes what Windows looks like on the network, ... and this change can be detected remotely, anonymously, and very, very quickly. You can literally ask a server if it's infected with Conficker, and it will tell you." The link is to SWS, on Kaminsky's site, which is a quick scanner for Conficker. http://www.doxpara.com What Changed WhatChanged is a simple utility that searches for modified ... (view more)