Downadup Virus (AKA Conflicker): 9 Million Windows Computers Already Compromised

F-Secure’s chief research officer, Nikko Hypponen, told AP Digital in a phone interview that there’s currently an incredibly fast-spreading computer virus moving through the U.S., Europe and Asia. It has already infected as many as 9 million Windows-based computers. According to F-Secure, it is migrating “more rapidly through corporate networks than anything seen in years.”

So far, the worm itself is simply replicating itself and not doing anything harmful to the infected PC’s. According to Hypponen, “The gang behind this worm hasn’t used it yet, but they could do anything they like at any moment with any of these machines at any time.” The infected machines are completely compromised, meaning they could be programmed remotely to accomplish just about any task.

Microsoft issued a security update this past Tuesday to address the bug, named the Downadup or Conflicker virus, which is the latest version of a similar virus which appeared as far back as October.

According to a Microsoft blog, “Over the last couple of weeks, a new variant of this worm has been affecting customers.” Microsoft said the Conficker worm spreads by compromising one machine and then guessing at the passwords of other users on the same network. According to Microsoft, “If the password is weak, it may succeed.”

The origin of the Downadup or Conflicker virus is still a mystery, though F-Secure’s best guess is that it came from Ukraine due to the fact that it’s internally coded to avoid computers in Ukraine – possibly to avoid attracting “local authorities” for the bug’s authors.

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