Warning to traders Apr 1st http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090327.WORM27/TPStory/National
It might be a good idea to wait and see what this will do to the internet before trading tomorrow. http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200903301000DOWJONESDJONLINE000317_FORTUNE5.htm SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- Security experts have sounded the alarm - and many others are just as loudly trying to quell the furor - over fears the Conficker computer worm could trigger Internet havoc on April 1. Some security researchers have warned that Conficker could unleash the equivalent of a "digital Pearl Harbor," while others have suggested it could be world's biggest April Fool's joke. No one knows for sure what will happen on Wednesday when as many as 10 million computers infected by Conficker start " phoning home" for new instructions from the worm's creators. Multiple versions of the worm, which first appeared late last year, have spread in a variety of ways and take advantage of several weaknesses in Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows operating system. The software giant fixed those weaknesses in October, but many people didn't download the patch or they run bootleg copies of Windows that don't get the updates. Once Conficker infiltrates a machine, it tries to crack administrators' passwords, hijack security software, disable commercial antivirus software, and opens the PCs to further infections. Internet security experts were so struck by the authors' skills that they formed the "Conficker Cabal" to fight back against the worm. Their challenge is apt to get a whole lot bigger on Wednesday when Conficker is set to generate 50,000 new Internet domain names, any of which could be used to take control of the millions of infected PCs. The vast number of potential control centers will make it extremely difficult to preemptively cut off communication between the infected computers and Conficker's authors. Some researchers - and many media outlets, including CBS' "60 Minutes" - have speculated that the worm's authors could then trigger the program to send spam, spread more infections, or start an all-out attack on Web sites run by major Internet companies such as Google Inc. (GOOG), Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) or Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) But others who have been following the worm say the date will probably come and go without event. Luis Corron, a director at Panda Security, played down the threat Friday in a blog post entitled "Don't get taken in by the Conficker Panic." Corron noted that criminals and hackers typically unleash Internet worms to surreptitiously build huge networks of "zombie" computers that can then be harnessed to send spam, or increasingly to steal vast amounts of personal and financial data available online. That would augur against at crippling Internet attack. Rick Howard, intelligence director at Verisign Inc.'s (VRSN) iDefense Labs, said researchers scouring the Internet have discovered copies of the updated worm lying in wait to be activated on April 1. He said that while those copies point to a more sophisticated version of the worm, they don't contain a payload that would launch an attack on Wednesday. "It's unclear what it's for right now," he said of Conficker. "It could be used for lots of things, but there's not going to be a catastrophe on April 1." -By Scott Morrison, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-6118; scott.morrison@ dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires 03-30-09 1000ET Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
TrendMicro has a good explanation: The DOWNAD/Conficker Worm http://us.trendmicro.com/us/threats/conficker-worm/ If you are running Windows, go to the Microsoft updates home and make sure you are up to date on all updates (you have to use Internet Explorer): http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us