Conficker Worm Remained Silent on April 1, 2009

Right on time, the new Conficker Worm variant awoke on April 1, 2009 enquiring several new links for directions on what should be the next step. But the new variant didn't receive any instruction, as predicted by security experts, and millions of infected computers remained in standby mode.

As per some reports, security experts believed that the Conficker Worm would cause the systems to phone home on April 1, 2009. They had predicted that from 2-12 Million systems will be targeted by the virus. Therefore, experts have started informing the public about the attack by Conficker Worm on networks and systems beforehand.

Till now, no reports of the virus attacks have been reported in the US.

Sans Researcher, Marcus Sachs, said in a blog posting on April 1, 2009 that they had many readers contacting them for past 24 hours with some trivial influence, but there was no significant news, as reported by vnunet on April 1, 2009.

But the security researchers warned that the Conficker botnet would continue to be a major threat to computer users.

Dan Hubbard, Chief Technology Officer, Websense, says that there are many systems targeted by the worm and hackers have the potential to utilize the network for accomplishing illegal activities, as reported by SCMAGAZINE on April 1, 2009.

Dan also cautioned that the latest version of malware could be launched. Moreover, this version is equipped with better protections systems to avert the latest kinds of spreading methods and reverse engineering. In the mean time, security experts at Cisco claim that they anticipated the worm would achieve the capability of a peer-to-peer communication that will enable it to interact with other hacked hosts for receiving instructions and eliminating the requirement of query domains.

Also, the virus has performed activity around the world; chiefly in those countries where pirated forms of Microsoft software are used without the safety of security upgrades. Therefore, security experts inform that the best defense against the virus is to have an updated antivirus scanner.

Microsoft has ordered a reward worth $250,000 reward for anyone who provides the information about the hackers.

Related article: Conviction of First Felony Spam in Virginia Upheld

» SPAMfighter News - 4/6/2009