01 April,2009 07:48 AM IST | | Aditya Anand
The Conficker Worm spreads Spam, steals data, carries out online scams
What follows may seem like an April Fools Day joke, but it's not. If you have a Windows XP or Windows 2000
Conficker is a new breed of self-updating PC worm that has infiltrated nearly every Windows 2000 and XP machine in countries like China, Brazil, Russia, and India, which also have some of the highest numbers of pirated copies of Windows in the world. "Almost 607,172 IPs (internet addresses) in India and overall 10 million IPs have been affected by Conficker," said a researcher at SRI International, an independent research firm.
What you can do
To prevent the spread of the worm, security experts from Websense Security Labs yesterday advised users to immediately update their Windows operating systems and also their anti-virus programmes. "Windows XP and older versions of Windows are most at risk. Users are advised to install Microsoft's latest patch and, as ever, to update their security software," said security experts.
McAfee Labs, which makes anti-virus software, in its statement on the potential impacts of Conficker on April 1, said, "The Conficker Worm, also known as Downadup, has been one of the most prolific Internet worms seen in recent years and has infected millions of computers since it appearance in late November 2008. The worm digs itself in by attempting to deactivate security software and sabotaging tools to remove it."
Dmitry Gryaznov, senior research architect at McAfee Avert Labs, said that computers infected with Conficker become part of an army of compromised computers and could be used to launch attacks on websites, distribute spam, host phishing websites or other nefarious activities.
The latest Spam report from Symantec, which also makes anti-virus software, ranks India after the US and Brazil as the top Spam producing countries.
Falling market
The Indian security software market grew roughly at 25 per cent in 2008 compared to 35.2 per cent in 2007, with the Indian software security market standing at just Rs 1,500 crore in 2008.
