The April 1st Virus ain't no joke.

[Moonliner]

On Wednesday April 1st the Conflicker worm is set to come to life. No one but it's createor(s) is sure what it will do. Possibilities range from not much of anything to deleting every file on your PC.

Article about the worm

The C release came out this past month. It doesn't go after new machines—it's actually a payload for computers already infected with B. It transformed Conficker from a sneezing pandemic into a seriously nasty plague. With C, its p2p powers are extended further, with digital code-signing, so it only accepts trusted code updates from itself. That means security experts can't simply inject code to neutralize it. The patch also made Conficker better at killing security software. And it expanded the scope of the domains it tries to contact for instructions from 250 to 50,000, completely neutralizing security experts' previous tactic of seizing the domains. There's effectively no way to the cut the head off of this demon snake. The stage is set: On April 1, Conficker will reach out for the millions-strong zombienet's next set of instructions.

Prior to the 1st, you should run Microsoft update to get your PC's patched, update your Anti-virus software and run a full scan.



You might also want to run the free Symantec tool to detect and remove the worm

[Kevy Baby]

Or just keep using my Mac and not worry about a thing...

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

Or just keep using my Mac and not worry about a thing...

The number of Mac users is growing and one day there is going to be a virus for the Mac. How many users will be prepared? That virus writer is going to get more publicity then any virus writer for a PC. After all, they are the first to bring down the Mac user....

[wendybeth]

The very first virus was written for an Apple. Macs are not immune, but so far the viruses have been relatively benign. Looking around, it would appear that antiviral software for the Mac can be a PITA to install, so I'm guessing there are a lot of Mac users that don't bother with it, thinking they are safe. BTD is right- when it does hit, it will hit hard.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

I've had a PC for 11 years and have never once been affected by any of these supposed killer worms/viruses.

Unfortunately, we have a couple people here in our small office that are not as careful in their web surfing habits. I actually had somebody open an attachment in an email from someone they didn't know. We had one computer get infected bad enough that the ONLY solution was to reinitialize the drive.

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

The number of Mac users is growing and one day there is going to be a virus for the Mac. How many users will be prepared? That virus writer is going to get more publicity then any virus writer for a PC. After all, they are the first to bring down the Mac user....

True in theory, but Apple is still lagging well under 10% market share. However, those with a malicious hacker mentality still reside almost exclusively in the Wintel world and would have to learn a new OS.

Were not immune, but the law of averages is still very much on our side.

[Not Afraid]

Until that happens, I will be happy I have a Mac.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I've had a PC for 11 years and have never once been affected by any of these supposed killer worms/viruses.

[RStar]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

I've had a PC for 11 years and have never once been affected by any of these supposed killer worms/viruses.

Same here.

With the exception of that time I picked up something I picked up from a website that highjacked my browser, which was an easy fix and didn't delete or damage anything. Damn porn sites!

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

I've had a PC for 11 years and have never once been affected by any of these supposed killer worms/viruses.

Do you regularly run windows update? How about an anti-virus program? Spam filter? Do you use caution when opening attachments? Pay attention to what websites you visit and the links you click on?

Are you saying that there really is not a problem with worms/virus or that you've never been affected by one because you take active measures to protect yourself?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

Do you regularly run windows update? How about an anti-virus program? Spam filter? Do you use caution when opening attachments? Pay attention to what websites you visit and the links you click on?

Are you saying that there really is not a problem with worms/virus or that you've never been affected by one because you take active measures to protect yourself?

I don't consider letting Windows run updates, having AVG, and not being dumb enough to click on obvious spam "active measures". I set up anti-virus once, I set up Windows to update automatically once. Other than that, I do nothing special to prevent viruses.