| "The best way to defeat potential botnets like | | | | the Windows "Server" service. Since people aren't as |
| Conficker/Downadup is by the security and domain | | | | diligent about patching as they should be, hackers |
| name system communities working together," said | | | | created a new worm that spread like wildfire, leaving |
| Greg Rattray, ICANN chief Internet security adviser, in | | | | systems completely under their control. Security |
| a statement released Thursday. "ICANN represents a | | | | researchers have determined that the virus is |
| community that's all about coordinating those kinds of | | | | expected to go "live" on April 1st, 2009, causing your |
| efforts to keep the Internet globally secure and stable." | | | | computer to do bad things—but since the worm |
| Conficker, also known as the Downadup worm, takes | | | | uses a P2P protocol it's nearly impossible to identify |
| advantage of a critical bug in Microsoft's Windows | | | | the source. |
| operating system, which was patched last October. | | | | |
| Since late December the worm has emerged as one | | | | How Does It Spread? |
| of the worst computer threats in years, infecting more | | | | The worm originally started spreading using a network |
| than 10 million computer systems worldwide, including | | | | attack against the file sharing services in Windows, but |
| PCs within the British and French militaries. | | | | since it can automatically update itself, it adapted to |
| If Conficker's author lives in a part of the world that's | | | | spread through the autoplay feature on removable |
| known to be soft on cybercrime -- Russia, the Ukraine | | | | media like USB thumb drives, by adding a new option |
| or Romania, for example -- it may be hard to get a | | | | to open where you see "publisher not specified". This |
| conviction, said the editor of the cybercrime research | | | | allows the worm to spread to systems already |
| site, who goes by the pseudonym Jart Armin. | | | | patched against the original vulnerability, so using |
| What is the Conficker Work?Microsoft released an | | | | anti-virus software is even more important, because |
| update in October to resolve a critical security hole in | | | | once it's on your computer it can spread further. |