Conficker Continues As A Virulent Threat, Says Researcher

According to security company F-Secure's chief research officer Mikko Hypponen at the Las Vegas held Black Hat security conference, the terrible Conficker botnet might have failed on April Fools Day whilst there was a worldwide anticipation of the most dangerous attacks from it, yet after several months the botnet continues to be a virulent threat. Internetnews.com published this on July 31, 2009.

The chief research officer also disclosed certain details about the existing Conficker nodes and the situational points of the hotspots. The ultimate evaluation he makes about the virus is that it continues to be an object of necessary concern amongst IT administrators and users, while the culprits of the botnet continue to stay at large.

The researcher presented certain data from the Conficker Working Group towards proving his argument. Accordingly, as of July 24, 2009, he revealed, more than 5.5m active and distinct IPs existed that contained the virus, with majority of the contaminations emanating in China, Vietnam and Brazil.

Said Hypponen that the people responsible for the Conficker were not ones to be fooled; they had full knowledge of their stuff, knew coding, crypto, development cycles as also were watchful of the actions of well-intended people in the security industry.

Describing Conficker's complexities, Hypponen stated that the virus was quite distinct in the way it proliferated through USB sticks. He explained how Conficker was capable of initiating an autorun for a Windows computer, despite its user otherwise disabling the system's autorun meant for USB devices. Actually the Conficker's binary code manages Windows OS to deceptively display the open-folder icon to the user and thereby to run the code.

Finally Hypponen said that at the time he presented his paper's abstract at the conference over 6 months back, he assumed he would be handing over a dead virus' forensic appearance and that the gang controlling the virus would no longer be in action. He added that he had anticipated that by July end 2009 the incident would be terminated, with the gang ending up in prison. However, users must still remain cautious and do everything possible towards avoiding the threat.

Related article: Conviction of First Felony Spam in Virginia Upheld

» SPAMfighter News - 8/19/2009