Run a Conficker removal tool before April 1

Computers infected with the infamous Conficker worm will start scanning the Internet for instructions this April Fools' Day, and the results won't be a funny joke.

I'm publishing a special news update today to correct some misinformation that's been circulating and to give you a 1-2-3 approach that should cure most Conficker infections before April 1.

In a technical analysis, the nonprofit security group SRI International states that millions of PCs have become infected with Conficker. It's "the most dominating infection outbreak since Sasser," a worm that raced across the Internet in 2004, SRI says.

Writer John Markoff opined in a New York Times blog post on March 19 that Conficker's bot army "could possibly become the world's most powerful parallel computer." Something tells me this network isn't going to be used to search for signs of intelligent life in the universe.


Run a Conficker removal tool before April 1

Thanks for that information,well done.

Informatik IV: Containing Conficker

AVG claim that their product will detect and heal any of the 3OO+ Conficker variants with just a normal on demand scan. Apparently the same applies for McAfee.

BitDefender, Eset, Symantec and Sophos and Microsoft all have removal tools available.

Conficker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I must be doing something wrong, as i never have security problems and have been running XP for about 5 years without a single Microsoft security patch (update )installed.

Hi,

I d/led the BitDefender one a little while back - only a couple of mb.

They reckon Downadup won't stop you getting to the download site once you are infected

Remove Downadup - Removal tool for Downadup (known also as Conficker or Kido)

http://www.bdtools.net/download/bd_rem_tool.zip

http://www.bdtools.net/how-to-remove-downadup.php

In a March 25 security article, CNET News senior writer Elinor Mills, who covers the Conficker worm, makes the following recommendations: "Computer users should apply the Microsoft patch ... " and "Microsoft has a Conficker removal tool ... "

That sounds fine, but those recommendations won't work if the worm is controlling your PC. Conficker.C prevents access to Microsoft.com.

In addition, the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) that Mills's article links to is not certain to remove the latest variants of Conficker. In a March 27 posting, Vincent Tui of the MS Malware Protection Center describes MSRT as having been updated on Jan. 13 to remove Conficker.A and B. There's no mention of MSRT being revised lately to remove Conficker.C.

Run a Conficker removal tool before April 1

No harm in having access to more than one removal tool.