Wednesday, April 1, 2009
APRIL FOOLS: Conficker Comes; Conficker Sees; Antivirus Conquers
Posted by Vincent Ferrari in "Other Apple Hardware" @ 04:59 AM
"A computer virus that has wormed its way into millions of PCs was activated today... but with little effect. The Conficker virus, which has infected up to 15million computers since last autumn, has so far lurked harmlessly - but experts were braced for it to change the way it operated first thing this morning. The 'worm' started looking for new instructions on what it should do next by scanning 50,000 different websites at midnight last night. Experts feared the virus was about to be used by its creators to control an army' of 15 million 'zombie PCs' to steal bank details, send spam emails or even crash a major website. But so far, nothing untoward has taken place."
Of course nothing untoward happened. Unlike our Macintosh brethren, we Windows users are the belt and suspenders type. We have anti spyware, anivirus, anti phishing, anti malware, registry protection, dll protection, Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool, and a host of other goodies to keep ourselves safe. We're fortunate to have the choice of fifty different antivirus programs, also, including one from Microsoft. Oh sure our memory has more residents than an apartment building in the Bronx, but we're locked down, baby, and this Conficker non-issue is proof positive that we're not as prone to viruses as those pesky "Get a Mac" ads say.
Hah! I say.