Confiker – The April’s fool virus
confiker computer worm
On April 1, the April fools virus is doing rounds in cyber world.
It’s also called the April fools day virus- the Confiker virus that reportedly hits the computers once in a few years.
Though not much among the lay users the conficker worm is causing quite a stir among computer security experts who are hurrying against time to minimise the impact of the virus ready strike on April 1.
Computer users around the world are holding their collective breaths as April 1 arrives, to see whether the Conficker.c virus takes control of as many as 10 million infected computers–and what it will do then.
No agenda has been announced by the creators of the virus, and this is one of the points that makes it most worrisome to experts.
“The program could delete all of the files on a person’s computer, use zombie PCs — those controlled by a master — to overwhelm and shut down Web sites or monitor a person’s keyboard strokes to collect private information like passwords or bank account information,” experts told CNN.
More likely, however, “the virus may try to get computer users to buy fake software or spend money on other phony products.”
Infection of Microsoft-Windows accessible Conficker.c has been spreading since late last fall. The first wave targeted machines and dug in to software, hiding in wait, and was first discovered in November. The second wave began distributing copies of itself in December 2008, and the most recent in March 2009, is able to transfer itself through removable media, such as thumb drives, making it possible to infect any machine the user plugs into.