The news has been full of warnings for the past week that a virus is coming to attack your computer on April 1st.  This past Sunday, 60 Minutes ran a piece entitled, “The Internet Is Infected” that led with information on the Conficker worm (aka Downadup or Kido) and then quickly began to mix in broader information about the state of Malware on the internet, spreading Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt but not much in the way of good information.  In the report there was a reference to “Jaws”, phrases like “the internet is a minefield”, and intimations that there is no such thing as a trusted website.  All of this tied into a general impression that impending doom is marching towards us on April 1st, somehow related to Conficker.  At the end of the story it is revealed that “the wily worm”, referring to Conficker, had infected even the CBS News computing infrastructure; that there is no way to really protect your computer from some awful new virus that is probably right around the corner…  I have to say that this report was salacious and not very useful, except maybe to drive up viewership on 60 Minutes.

Side Note: Back in January, I wrote a detailed piece entitled, “Practical Cyber Security At Home”.  If you are following the general practices outlined in that article, then you have nothing to fear from Conficker.

While Conficker has potential to be very dangerous, no one can yet say exactly how.  If you are infected it could at some point be used to steal important personal information from your computer or turn your computer into a zombie in a Botnet.  The thing is, no one really knows what the threat is yet because all Conficker does so far is 1) infect a system 2) change some things on the system to make sure it stays infected 3) Try to infect other systems on your network 4) listen for further instructions.  It is like a “Mole” agent in a spy-thriller movie that has not yet received a mission.  I should mention that you are at risk only if you run a Windows computer.  Our friends running MAC or Linux can once again stand on the sidelines and sneer at these shenanigans.

So lets start with finding out if you are infected with an easy test, which is simply to visit any/all of the following websites:

http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.avg.com
http://www.computerassociates.com
http://www.f-secure.com

The above are a handful of the many websites with instructions and tools to remove Conficker from an infected system.  If you are infected then you will not be able to reach them since it will block your attempts.  If that is the case, the first thing you should do is unplug your computer from the internet which will at least prevent any further damage or infection from occurring.  Next, on a different computer, you will need to go here to get the information and tools you will need to fix your infected system.

If, on the other hand, you are able to reach the websites above then you are not infected.  Wait, don’t go away yet, there is still some work for you to do.  First of all, insure that you do have current and updated Anti-Virus software installed on your system.  You might as well run a scan while you are checking that out.  Also, Make sure you have Firewall software installed as well as well as anti-malware.  I also recommend using OpenDNS on your router and/or computer which will block network access to known Conficker sites – click here for instructions.  If you have any questions about these items, please refer here: Practical Cyber Security At Home

It is important that you take these steps right away as something about Conficker is going to change starting on April 1.  A few minutes invested today will head off a potential headache on Wednesday.

Do you want to get much better informed about Conficker?  Read the following: