The IT Nerd

On April 1, a malicious piece of code called Conficker (A.K.A. Kido or Downup) is expected to try to connect to a control center and do “something.” Nobody knows what yet, but whatever it is, it can’t be good. Estimates say that as many as 10 million PCs are infected with this piece of code.

How do you protect yourself? I’d do the following:

1. UPDATE YOUR COMPUTER! This is vital as the code gets in via unpatched computers. So run Windows Update ASAP.
2. Scan you computer with an online virus scanner such as Trend Micro’s Housecall to make sure you’re clean.

What happens if you are infected? I would recommend calling a computer professional or checking these links from Symantec for removal instructions:

W32.Downadup.A writeup
W32.Downadup.B writeup
W32.Downadup.C writeup

There’s also this removal tool that I have mentioned previously.

If anybody has any other advice that can be helpful to users, please leave a comment and share your wisdom.

This entry was posted on March 27, 2009 at 10:55 am and is filed under Security, Tips with tags virus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.