Conficker will activate on April Fools

H_TeXMeX_H · 03-21-2009, 11:57 AM

Quote:

"John Markoff has a story at the NY Times speculating about what will happen on April 1 when the Conficker worm is scheduled to activate. Already on an estimated 12 million machines, conjectures about Conficker's purpose ranges from the benign — an April Fool's Day prank — to far darker notions. Some say the program will be used in the 'rent-a-computer-crook' business, something that has been tried previously by the computer underground. 'The most intriguing clue about the purpose of Conficker lies in the intricate design of the peer-to-peer logic of the latest version of the program, which security researchers are still trying to completely decode,' writes Markoff. According to a paper by researchers at SRI International, in the Conficker C version of the program, infected computers can act both as clients and servers and share files in both directions. With these capabilities, Conficker's authors could be planning to create a scheme like Freenet, the peer-to-peer system that was intended to make Internet censorship of documents impossible. On a darker note, Stefan Savage, a computer scientist at the University of California at San Diego, has suggested the possibility of a 'Dark Google.' 'What if Conficker is intended to give the computer underworld the ability to search for data on all the infected computers around the globe and then sell the answers,' writes Markoff. 'That would be a dragnet — and a genuine horror story.'"

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?...8248&art_pos=1

Detailed analysis of the worm:
http://mtc.sri.com/Conficker/addendumC/

I wonder what it will do ... an April Fools joke where the joke is on you ?

brianL · 03-21-2009, 03:35 PM

Mmm, fascinating. Clever buggers, whoever created it.

H_TeXMeX_H · 03-21-2009, 05:03 PM

Very clever indeed ... perhaps too clever. I dunno about you, but I can't wait to find out what happens

brianL · 03-21-2009, 05:35 PM

Yeah. Bring it on!!!

I like this bit from that detailed analysis:

Quote:

Perhaps in the best case, Conficker may be used as a sustained and profitable platform for massive Internet fraud and theft. In the worst case, Conficker could be turned into a powerful offensive weapon for performing concerted information warfare attacks that could disrupt not just countries, but the Internet itself.

Sounds like the shit's really going to hit the fan.

DragonSlayer48DX · 03-22-2009, 10:37 AM

For those who are dual-booting, whose 'other side' may be compromised, you can go here for continuous updates on removal tools and instructions, as well as other information on this threat from various sources.

Cheers

H_TeXMeX_H · 03-30-2009, 10:50 AM

More interesting info on this worm:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/30/090224

Quote:

Conficker actually changes what Windows looks like on the network, and this change can be detected remotely, anonymously, and very, very quickly. You can literally ask a server if it's infected with Conficker, and it will give you an honest answer

dv502 · 03-31-2009, 08:56 PM

No worry here, 100% linux only except for the other two computers my family uses which is XP and vista.

I have a gut feeling this is a prank. Hence, the launch day April fools.

brianL · 04-01-2009, 04:21 AM

I don't think anybody would put so much effort into a prank.

H_TeXMeX_H · 04-01-2009, 05:27 AM

Looks like the worm activated and caused widespread havoc on computer systems worldwide ... it's back to the dark ages I guess.

brianL · 04-01-2009, 05:51 AM

Whooopeeee!!! The End Of Civilisation (if you could call it that) is here!! Let's Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarty!!!

H_TeXMeX_H · 04-01-2009, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H_TeXMeX_H

Looks like the worm activated and caused widespread havoc on computer systems worldwide ... it's back to the dark ages I guess.

Here's the /. story about it:
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?.../04/01/1330201

H_TeXMeX_H · 04-09-2009, 10:54 AM

It may actually be doing something now:
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/09/1213204

DragonSlayer48DX · 04-09-2009, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H_TeXMeX_H

It may actually be doing something now:
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/09/1213204

Also found this on PC World.

Quote:

Conficker Worm Reveals Its Business Model

The makers of Conficker, the worm that has infected millions of PCs, have begun to do what all botnet owners do -- make money -- security researchers said Thursday as they started analyzing the malware's newest variant.

H_TeXMeX_H · 05-01-2009, 06:26 AM

Hospital Equipment Infected With Conficker

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/30/2127211

Quote:

It's not clear how the devices (including heart monitors, MRI machines and PCs) got infected. Infected computers were running Windows NT and Windows 2000 in a local area network (LAN) that wasn't supposed to be Internet accessible, but the LAN was connected to one with direct Internet access. A patch was released by Microsoft last October that fixes the problem, but the computers infected were reportedly too old to be patched."

This makes me wonder how many deaths have been attributed to such causes ... M$, viruses, malware, etc.