The Buccaneer

Issue date: 5/13/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Paul Harvey Windows XP SP2 and Winows Vista will alert users that running without an Anvitirus is a critical security risk.

As major media dedicates paranoia inducing levels of coverage about the recent "Swine Flu" outbreak, also known as H1N1, less attention has been paid to what has so far been a red-letter year for computer viruses. As the number of computer users continue to grow, so too does the risk of contamination by malicious software known to information technology experts as viruses, trojans, worms and malware.
On April 1, 2009, computer security experts were holding their breath. An Internet worm known as Conficker has been spreading across computers for months, using a vulnerability found in almost every version of Windows. Nestled into the code, April 1 was a target date for the worm's trigger, but no one knew exactly what it would do.
Nothing happened on April 1. This led some Web sites and end users to believe Conficker had been a complicated Internet hoax. However, Conficker is real and still a threat according to security professionals at Symantec, AVG and Trend Micro.
Taking the threat seriously, Microsoft responded to the vulnerability Conficker originally used by issuing an emergency patch to its operating systems in late October. Impressive turn around reflecting the severity of the risk given Microsoft took seven years to patch another flaw in its software according to PC World. Despite Microsoft's timely response, users who fail to update may still be vulnerable.
Since Conficker's original appearance in early October, the malicious program has since updated itself several times, creating larger exploit holes for malicious activity. According to Symantec's reports, it has the potential to become one of the largest worms the world has ever seen.
A worm differs from a virus in the ability to spread itself; viruses rely on a user running an infected file, worms run themselves and actively search out vulnerabilities in a network to spread. Conficker, a particularly advanced worm, not only spreads itself by taking advantage of network vulnerabilities but also by injecting a hidden file onto any removable drives which are then spread to any computer those infected drives are plugged into.

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