"Conficker/Kido" Worm Infecting Computers! Yikes!

[3113]

You Windows users okay?

The number of Windows computers infected with the new "downadup" worm – also known as "Conficker" and "Kido" – has exploded to almost 9 million worldwide, from roughly 2.4m last Thursday, according to the computer security company F-Secure.

The growth in the number of infected machines – which the company's researchers called "just amazing" – makes it one of the worst malware outbreaks of the past five years. The principal targets are corporate Windows servers belonging to small businesses who have not installed security updates released by Microsoft last October. F-Secure estimates that a third of all potentially vulnerable systems have not had the update. But antivirus researchers are still unsure of the precise purpose of the malware, which is spreading via the internet, through unpatched corporate networks and through USB memory sticks attached to infected computers.

First discovered last October, downadup loads itself on to a computer by exploiting a weakness in Windows servers. Although the weakness was noticed and fixed by Microsoft last October, not enough people with vulnerable machines – including those running Windows XP and Vista – have installed it. The worm can infect USB sticks and any corporate laptop that gets infected could then launch attacks if it was later connected to a home network.

The reason for the explosion in infected machines seems to be a new variant which appeared last week, updated by the hackers who wrote the original. The new one attempts to crack the passwords of machines on a network using the computing power of the infected machine to apply a "brute force" approach – so that passwords such as "admin", "password" or "123456" on potential target machines will quickly be broken.

Once it has infected a machine, the software also tries to connect to up to 250 different domains with random names every day. Researchers reckon that one of them will be the intended "control" domain, and that when the computers connect to it they will download a fresh program that will take over the infected computer. "This makes it impossible and/or impractical for us good guys to shut them all down – most of them are never registered in the first place," the F-Secure team noted on its weblog. "However, the bad guys only need to predetermine one possible domain for tomorrow, register it, and set up a website – and they then gain access to all of the infected machines. Pretty clever."

Rest of the article here.

 

[rgraham666]

I gotta Mac.

 

[DeeZire]

I gotta Mac.

So do I. What's that old saying about following lemmings off the cliff? Or is it sheep?

 

[sadangel]

You Windows users okay?

Rest of the article here.

Mine appears to be fine! I keep my spyware blaster, spybot and AV and firewalls up to date daily. I am also cautious about any unsolicted emails and links to places I know nothing of!!

I gotta Mac.

Bragger!!
*remembers manners and smiles*

Me, mine is like 13 years old. Not worth the time of anyone doing anything to kill it!! *keeps trying to figure out how to put a hard drive into another computer so I can have a better one. And figure out how to change a Video card. Can you all tell I'm not mechanically inclined!!* (I have a computer that has a fried hard drive and another one that has a fried, something. It has a new harddrive though! Want to put harddrive from the something fried one into the one with a fried hard-drive.) Any Questions?!

 

[Techomancer]

So do I. What's that old saying about following lemmings off the cliff? Or is it sheep?

I LOVE the popup that tells me I have 250 errors in my windows registry and it then tries to install the "windows mechanic" software.

Linux rules!

 

[gauchecritic]

(I have a computer that has a fried hard drive and another one that has a fried, something. It has a new harddrive though! Want to put harddrive from the something fried one into the one with a fried hard-drive.) Any Questions?![/I]

Take off the side of the donor. Unclip the power and data ribbons of the good drive. Unfasten the screws and slide it out.

Take of the side of the recipient. Do the opposite.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

People who infect computers deserve to be . . . infected! Ebola would be a good beginning!

 

[fifty5]

Linux rules!

Definitely. Even this 'Doze laptop has a Linux firewall between it and the 'Net...

(Note for semi-geeks; the Linux firewall boots from a CD that has contents that would fit on 1 (repeat one) floppy. The advantage of a CD is that it isn't writable, so can't be hacked. Granted, the workstations have a bigger OS, but show me any version of 'Doze that will fit on a single, 1.4 MB floppy!)

 

[DesertPirate]

Definitely. Even this 'Doze laptop has a Linux firewall between it and the 'Net...

(Note for semi-geeks; the Linux firewall boots from a CD that has contents that would fit on 1 (repeat one) floppy. The advantage of a CD is that it isn't writable, so can't be hacked. Granted, the workstations have a bigger OS, but show me any version of 'Doze that will fit on a single, 1.4 MB floppy!)

When I added that to my two Netgear routers (wireless goes into 8 port) I decided I might be safe. Needless to say bot routers are locked down tight. 3 Desktops on the 8 port and a PS3. 1 - 3 laptops on the wireless.

 

[Pure]

note regarding the virus

microsoft has a software package to locate this worm, and you should be sure you have the October update for vista.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...e0-e72d-4f54-9ab3-75b8eb148356&displaylang=en

avg and others have preventive measures. of course if you have the worm, it may prevent your accessing antvirus websites!