Conficker Updates, Downloads Payload; Removal Tool Released

The Conficker worm is stirring. Something is happening for sure, but no one is exactly sure what it is.

In the first few minutes of April 1, it turns out Conflicker actually DID do something. It successfully called home for an update.

The immediate result wasn’t instant doomsday. Instead, it got smart – the update contained instructions on how to dig in even deeper.

“The worm did exactly what everyone thought it was going to do, which is update itself,” said Dan Kaminsky, who helped develop a widely-used Conficker scanner in the days leading up to April 1.

“The world wants there to be fireworks, or some Ebola-class, computers-exploding-all-over-the-world event or God knows what, but the reality is…the Conficker developers have cemented their ability to push updates through any fences the good guys have managed to build in February and March.”

This unknown update could be the first wave of the attack that has security experts concerned.

Trend Micro wrote a blog post yesterday that gives a fairly dire warning of things to come. So far, they have only been able to figure out that the payload in the latest Conficker update polls top websites to check for connectivity. Once ti finds it, it the deletes itself.

Many suspect that it could be installing a data-gathering Waledac virus.

Now for the good news – removing the Conflicker worm just got a lot easier.

Symantec now has a very easy and free tool dedicated to removing Conficker.

Just download this file onto your computer, follow the steps, and you should be in the clear. By the way, if you can’t access the Symantec website, that’s a pretty good indication that your PC is infected.

Also, via PC Mag, here’s the Conficker Working Group’s page of repair of tools.

Lastly, we highly recommend that you visit the Amazon Security Solutions page now to get everything you need to KEEP your computer clear once you’ve gotten rid of Conlicker. There you can compare Norton, McAfee, BitDefender and even Kaspersky Anti-Virus. If you are concerned about malware on your computer, Amazon Security Solutions is the only page you need.