This is not an April Fools joke.
As I’m sure many of you already know, the worm Conficker will be launched and/or activated tomorrow, April 1st. It has already infected millions of computers around the country. All infected computers will fall under the control of a singular user or website, making information like passwords, bank account numbers, and other sensitive material easy to steal.
The computers most at risk of infection tend to be that of businesses because protective firewall and other software is updated with the least regularity. Also susceptible are networked computers as the worm can rapidly spread to multiple desktops and laptops with minimal difficulty. While most home computers are constantly updating firewall and anti-malware protection making them a lower risk for infection, they are not completely out of danger.
For a more complete list of details, including other ways the worm can attack your computer and ways to safeguard against it, Go to PC World’s article here.
So, to prevent against the three known variants of the Conficker worm (A, B, and C) we’ll be keeping this computer from accessing the internet all day tomorrow so the blog will not be updated. Most experts agree that an all-day shut down is not absolutely necessary but that it can’t hurt either.
Good luck in keeping the bug away and I’ll see you back here on Thursday!
