Conficker's penetration will shut down your business

The High-Anxiety Attack nagging at the world since the Conficker virus made headlines in January, awoke in early April, and gave us a glimpse of what's in store. You need to know, because major institutions with highly sophisticated interdiction programs were laid waste, meaning those of us on the consumer, and SOHO, levels of protection, need to stay sharp to avoid being Conficker's next meal.

According to the Salt Lake (City) Tribune's Lisa Schencker, the University of Utah tasted Conficker's wrath: "The Conficker virus, which can slow computers and steal personal information, hit the U.'s network late this week. So far, the virus has mainly affected health sciences, including the university's three hospitals, medical school, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy and College of Health, said Chris Nelson, spokesman for health sciences at the U."

The telltale signs?

"University staff first noticed the virus was in the system Thursday after Internet access and e-mail slowed."

People ask what the writers of these virus attacks hope to accomplish. Mike Harvey, Technology Correspondent for the (London) Times reported that, "The Conficker virus, which has infected millions of computers around the world, is finally activating itself in a bid to become a money-making machine for cybercriminals.

"Infected machines have started to update themselves and download a fake anti-virus program aimed at tricking users into paying out for useless security software, security researchers said.

"The virus may also be destined to be used by its cybercriminal creators to send millions of spam emails and steal passwords from infected computers by creating a 'botnet' of 'zombie' machines."

Glenn C. Obert, CTO of WebfootEnterprises.com in Pensacola, advises his national list of clients "to make sure all security updates from Microsoft are installed."

Microsoft put out a fix last October, so even if you have run your security updates from then, there is a slight chance you could be infected from the time between Conficker's original release and the security fix download. The same window applies to anti-virus software, although the window is much smaller because they only have to identify a signature for it, while Microsoft has to reprogram the security problem, a process that takes weeks, or even a couple of months.

For more on this, go to: http://cybersmartcomputers.com and see the Quick-Ed (tm) articles, "Conficker: Our digital Pearl Harbor?" and "SECURITY ALERT: Conficker" for details.
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