Conficker Virus

[GloBug]

hey i was reading this on another forum and thought i should post it. it is not originally from me but i feel that this needs to be known. this virus is ruthless. if anyone get this on here it can ruin a bunch of our pc's.u should run scan on ur pc. i have done it and i am clean. i hope u check urs.




More spammers, more scammers and more virus's and malware. The internet is a great place to spend your leisure time - surfing the web, playing poker and IM'ing with friends. But there has always been a dark side - the bad guys that take advantage of the unsuspecting web surfer.

The last few weeks I've spent quite a bit of time helping several friends with infected computers. Many of you know that in a previous life (as part of Corporate America) I worked in the computer industry, specifically in networking and security. As technology moves forward those that lurk in the dark regions of the internet have made great progress in doing what they do best. As a result - current estimates say as many as 11 million home computers are infected with some sort of virus or malware.

Some are rather benign - they monitor your buying habits and collect data for advertisers - you usually realize they are there when your computer begins to run slowly and has unexplained crashs. Some aren't so harmless - they can do things from maliciously damage your computer to collect personal data that is sent off to a collection computer.

I always told people stay out of bad neighborhoods and you will be safe. But the bad guys have gotten smarter - they aren't just on the torrent sites or the ****o sites. Now they are on MySpace and they take out google ads representing themselves as an antivirus software vendor. Ironic eh? When you visit their site they infect your computer... now for a fee they will rid your system of the infection they just gave you.

The latest threat is the Conficker virus. Everybody is talking about Conficker and its variants. And not surprisingly, given the concern about the worm’s reactivation due on April 1. At its worse it will lock up your computer and block it from accessing any anti-virus/anti-malware site. At the same time it will propagate itself to any computer that comes in contact with yours. What are the plans of those that created Conficker? No one knows for sure... but the virus has algorithims built in to connect to domains that don't even exist today. How do you stop something like that?

The best way - don't get it to begin with. I'm always a bit shocked when I hear so many people don't use antivirus, anti malware and firewalls. The usual reasons are the programs are difficult to understand and use, they slow down use of the internet or they are too expensive.

I recommend everyone be sure to run a scan of your computer and install some protective software.

hey ndn like i said this isnt mine but i feel we should know about it. if u want to take away the chips go for it. i just wanted to post this for those that dont know about it.

[freeringo]

I was leaning forward in my chair the whole article.
Thank you for the info. I am running software now
and updates.

[GloBug]

I was leaning forward in my chair the whole article.
Thank you for the info. I am running software now
and updates.

best way to find out is try to go to a anti virus site like mcafee and see if it will even let u on the site. if it doesnt then u are in trouble. try to scan pc and see what happens. like i said if someone has it on the forum it could spread to all of us.

[nodepositneeded]

I'm still not sure how you think it could spread through the forum here.

Let's not start a mass panic Glo Bug!

[GloBug]

ok no mass panic. wasnt intended for that just more awareness. dont start freaking out people. just run scans and check ur pc. sorry ndn.

[nodepositneeded]

No worries.

I just wanted everyone to remember that NDN is a very safe environment.

[Dallas12]

I read this elsewhere and it is very important.. please read!!!


CONFICKER WORM

It also has different versions like Conficker B and others. There is information on it at the major news websites like CNN and others. Microsoft has the information at their site as well. I am including the link to Microsoft along with things that should be done for prevention and removal.

If you haven't received or know anything about this threat, than this might save you down the road.

It is important for me to say that people think just because they download the tool, it runs itself. It does not. You have to manually run it when you feel it is needed. The tool is not to prevent the worm, it is to remove it. Knowing this is why I stress how important it is to save the tool to a folder or on your desktop so you can find it and use it if you need to.

This is not meant to alarm anyone. The new Cnficker Worm is a real threat. It is said to have been non active but they are expecting it to become active on or about April 1st. It is no Joke! It has already infected more computers than any virus/trojan/worm in history combined. It is said that most computers infected are from users that use P2P file sharing, games, and download video. It can be gotten from all other sources as well but those were the most common. When it has infected your computer, one of the removal tools comes from Microsoft Update. It is called the Malicious Software Removal Tool. Unfortunately one of the things that the Conficker Worm does is to disable Windows update so you can't get the tool or the patch. Here is the link to Microsoft so you can get the tool. You need to make a new folder in my documents and name it Conficker so you can save the tool. This way you can run it anytime you choose to. You can save it to your desktop if you like if that is easier. When you open up this tool it gives options to do a quick scan or a full scan. I suggest the full scan. Beware that the full scan can take a very long time depending on how many files you have and how strong (Fast) your computer is. If you don't have many files and your computer is fast, 1hr. If you have a lot of files and an average computer then it will probably take several hours.
Here are the actions that I recommend!
Turn on automatic windows update if it is not on.
Remember doing this is at your own risk. I haven’t had anybody with any problems after doing this that were major. The minor things that were caused by the tool removing the malicious software, virus/Trojan/worms were easily fixed. Most people have had no problem at all, still I must say this is at your own risk.

The first link I will list here is for Microsoft explaining about Conficker and the things that should be done.
Conficker Worm: Help Protect Windows from Conficker

This is the link for the removal tool.
Download details: Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

These next few links are to the patches for the different Operating Systems that you might have. This is more to help prevent you from getting conficker.
XPsp2
Download details: Security Update for Windows XP (KB958644)
XPsp3
Download details: Security Update for Windows XP (KB958644)
VISTA
Download details: Security Update for Windows Vista (KB958644)

[kingsnthahole]

im guessing im fine, norton 360 is my best friend...

[Dallas12]

Their is no need to panic I just wanted you all to know about this. Their are links for you all to go to to check out. So no need to panic. Just be carefull and run a scan

[KaciBlakely]

I have checked my laptop and desktop. I usually run a virus scan and make sure my computers are clean every week but I didn't this week and it's all clean here.

Thanks for sharing this information. I imagine it would've been a mess rebooting and cleaning my systems so thanks again for saving me from that.