This message was originally distributed as a Bytes & Bits special mailing 3/31/09Forget the Ides of March, April Fool's is the day computer users fear this year.You heard it on 60 Minutes and in much of the non-technical press. There's a nasty piece of computer malware (a general term for anything that can hurt your PC as there's more than just viruses out there) that will launch April 1, 2009. They present the specter of vicious bots rising out of the earth and marching across the Internet devouring everything in their path. You've probably heard it referred to as Conficker, although it has also been named Downadup and Kido.
Windows Secrets put out a comprehensible free special edition at
http://windowssecrets.com/comp/090330/ with more than you want to know about "IT" on Monday. Here's the executive summary:
The good news: * You're probably already protected. IT has been around since November and so has protection through Windows Updates and antivirus updates.
* Armageddon will not come Wednesday. That's the day that IT's army of bots call in to get their next instructions. They may be told to destroy your computer, flood the internet with offers of a fortune from Nigeria, send your banking information to Russia, or ... they may be told to check in again on the Fourth of July.
The bad news: * If you are infected, IT makes removal very difficult. Primarily, IT blocks access to just about any site that will help you get rid of it including Windows Updates and antivirus. Security firm BitDefender has a new site that is, currently, not being blocked. If you cannot access your updates, go today to
http://www.bdtools.net/ and use their free tool. No doubt this site, too, will be blocked after 4/1.
* Just turning your computer off for a day will not protect you from future infections. Malware is still trolling for vulnerable PCs even after their trigger day. Those that have been triggered will be sending out phishing requests to steal your information or whatever else they were instructed to do.
Last hope: * If you can't do anything else, take your infected computer off the internet. Go to an uninfected computer such as at a big business or respected public access site and download the BitDefender tool to a USB thumb drive (it is a 2.2 MB zip file). Then you can run it on your computer and immediately do your updates.
* If you don't have a current antivirus program on your infected computer, you can also download AVG from
http://free.avg.com/download?prd=afe and install it. Today's download includes the latest updates so you can run a complete scan of your computer without having to go online for updates. (Be sure you uninstall your old antivirus program first.)
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