Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Conficker - The April Fool's Day Virus

Tomorrow (4/1/09) is a very important day. A virus is set to do some very nasty things tomorrow, or so they say. Basically, this Internet worm has infected many computers, and is set to start being exceptionally nasty starting tomorrow.

There have been many viruses that people see as something that could be a catastrophe that turn out to be nothing, but this one seems like it might have some teeth to it. Technical details are in the article linked above, but tomorrow could be a very interesting day. I wanted to make sure I said this before tomorrow arrives. Could it be that tomorrow we will wake up and the Internet will be crippled because of this virus? Will the estimated 3 million infected machines rise up and launch computer attacks on government sites, or e-commerce sites, or email sites? Or will this be something that just sort of overhyped, as many computer viruses were?

PC Magazine has a "To-Do" list - for home users and network administrators alike - on how to make sure they are protected. Basically, if you have an anti-virus software package installed and updated, and you've been running Windows (or Microsoft) Update, you should be okay. This is why I am secure enough to leave my home PC on tomorrow when I go to teach.

That is, if all the computers in the world haven't gone down by 11:45 am! :)

Thanks to Sue for the heads up on the "To-Do List"!

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