The Observer Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/128643 ... e-april-1/ In an event that hits the computer world only once every few years, security experts are racing against time to mitigate the impact of a bit of malware which is set to wreak havoc on a hard-coded date. As is often the case, that date is April 1. Malware creators love to target April Fool's Day with their wares, and the latest worm, called Conficker C, could be one of the most damaging attacks we've seen in years. I'd advise you all to run Microsoft update, run virus updates and then scan your system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obfuscator Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Backup is the best option. Also, make sure you have windows xp service pack 3 or windows vista service pack 1. If you've already been infected, it's too late, although no one knows what the virus will actually do as of now. "It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dracion1 Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 As I said before, there's worse out there. I'd advise to upgrade to a good AV (Avira - free, NOD32 - pay), keep your OS up to date, back up your stuff to an external hard drive, and not to visit anything suspicious. Hopefully someone will find a fix for it the meantime. "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bauke Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Probably an april's fools joke. Twitter ||| Google+ ||| Facebook ||| LinkedIn ||| My very interesting weblog about science Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sbrideau Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Probably an april's fools joke. +1, that's what I'm thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obfuscator Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Probably an april's fools joke. Viruses have a history of exploding on april first. As I said before, there's worse out there. I'd advise to upgrade to a good AV (Avira - free, NOD32 - pay), keep your OS up to date, back up your stuff to an external hard drive, and not to visit anything suspicious. Hopefully someone will find a fix for it the meantime. "The meantime" is 4 days left. Microsoft has 1000+ people working on it since early January and they still haven't found a solution. Almost every common antivirus program can't remove this virus, and it automatically disables Windows defender, liveupdate, your firewall and antivirus. I've seen part of the code for this virus, and whoever made it was, honestly, a genius. He thought of pretty much everything, and the way things look now, there could be a ton of damage come april 1st. I could go into more detail about what makes it so unique but it probably isn't worth it :P "It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dracion1 Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 I didn't say it's definitely going to happen in the next 4 days, I just said it could. Sure they may have been working since January, but there's still hope. Also, things like this also have the habit of being overhyped scareware. It's not the first time it's happened, and doubtless it'll happen again. Sure, taking precautions is absolutely essential, but it wouldn't surprise me if the whole thing was just a hoax that creates a file called lol.txt on your desktop or something similar. "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runescapeloser22 Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 I made a thread about this in Off-Topic already :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blade995 Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 I didn't say it's definitely going to happen in the next 4 days, I just said it could. Sure they may have been working since January, but there's still hope. Also, things like this also have the habit of being overhyped scareware. It's not the first time it's happened, and doubtless it'll happen again. Sure, taking precautions is absolutely essential, but it wouldn't surprise me if the whole thing was just a hoax that creates a file called lol.txt on your desktop or something similar. Most worms and viruses are way over hyped. They always say that this new virus is going to be a killer that going to infect millions and it usually does not happen. Keep your system updated and have a good antivirus scanner and you will be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obfuscator Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 I didn't say it's definitely going to happen in the next 4 days, I just said it could. Sure they may have been working since January, but there's still hope. Also, things like this also have the habit of being overhyped scareware. It's not the first time it's happened, and doubtless it'll happen again. Sure, taking precautions is absolutely essential, but it wouldn't surprise me if the whole thing was just a hoax that creates a file called lol.txt on your desktop or something similar. Most worms and viruses are way over hyped. They always say that this new virus is going to be a killer that going to infect millions and it usually does not happen. Keep your system updated and have a good antivirus scanner and you will be fine. The thing with this one is that it's built in such a way that we have no idea what it will actually do. This one has the potential to infect many and already has, the UK ministry of defense has this virus in their system already. "It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dracion1 Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 the UK ministry of defense has this virus in their system already. Source? "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obfuscator Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 the UK ministry of defense has this virus in their system already. Source? Finding, give me a minute. Wikipedia, even though its "not trustworthy". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conficker http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/view/94870 This is interesting as well: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/techn ... r=1&ref=us "It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mylez Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 LOL. If the ministry of defence has it, why am I not suprised? Most household computers have better defence than those idiots. :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latinoking Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 *makes sure not to start computer 1st of April* In reality, if you have good anti-virus, you should be set. I am Teh_King[My dA][My Last.FM][My Twitter] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obfuscator Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 *makes sure not to start computer 1st of April* In reality, if you have good anti-virus, you should be set. The fact is, most antivirus programs are unable to detect/remove this virus, as it immediately renders them useless upon infection. It's more important to have windows xp sp3 or vista sp1, those have the necessary things in place to prevent infection. "It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dracion1 Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Afaik SP2 will be supported for as long as SP3. Extended support for XP stays the same for both service packs, presumably since SP3 was released after Vista. Still worth getting though (which I can't :wall:) "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obfuscator Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Afaik SP2 will be supported for as long as SP3. Extended support for XP stays the same for both service packs, presumably since SP3 was released after Vista. Still worth getting though (which I can't :wall:) The problem is that this virus was released after sp2, the exploit it used was fixed by a patch thats included with sp3 and vista sp1, so if you have sp2 and haven't upgraded you are still vulnerable. "It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Probably an april's fools joke. Read the posts in the topic before you post something as ignorant as that - seriously dude, forget your Runescape account; this quite likely attack could seriously damage your whole system. 2257AD.TUMBLR.COM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sbrideau Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 Probably an april's fools joke. Read the posts in the topic before you post something as ignorant as that - seriously dude, forget your Runescape account; this quite likely attack could seriously damage your whole system. You're taking this too much seriously. Imo it will probably be something that won't even show up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dracion1 Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 the exploit it used was fixed by a patch thats included with sp3 and vista sp1 Then why did you say: Microsoft has 1000+ people working on it since early January and they still haven't found a solution. Surely it doesn't take 1000 people just to fix the code and ship it in the regular update for sp2? If MS cared ,which they do (they have a $250,000 reward on the creator of this), they'd ship it regardless of what service pack you have. "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wongtong Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 How would the worm get into your system anyways? 8,180WONGTONG IS THE BEST AND IS MORE SUPERIOR THAN ME#1 Wongtong stalker.Im looking for some No Limit soldiers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obfuscator Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 How would the worm get into your system anyways? It used an exploit that wasn't fixed until xp sp3 and vista sp1, I'm not sure exactly what it was though. the exploit it used was fixed by a patch thats included with sp3 and vista sp1 Then why did you say: Microsoft has 1000+ people working on it since early January and they still haven't found a solution. Surely it doesn't take 1000 people just to fix the code and ship it in the regular update for sp2? If MS cared ,which they do (they have a $250,000 reward on the creator of this), they'd ship it regardless of what service pack you have. Let me rephrase myself. They have fixed the exploit with windows service pack 3 and vista service pack 1. This means that computers with these versions of the operating system can no longer GET THE VIRUS. To this date, Microsoft has no means to actually remove the virus from infected computers and negate its spread. I don't know what the fix actually was, but the size of the exploit was such that it couldn't be fixed with the basic updates. "It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dracion1 Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 Ah, I see. You confused me a bit there :P I'm a tad concerned because I can't install SP3 (I've tried it a couple of times and thanks to Windows Genuine Disadvantage it breaks and I have to load up a backup). Anyway, I did some research and there are patches for SP2 on the MS website that prevent it from getting in. How would the worm get into your system anyways? Various ways. The most common ways are on USB memory sticks (To fix it you have to turn the autoplay feature off) and if your computer is networked. Apparently new infections are levelling off though. "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sbrideau Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 Ah, I see. You confused me a bit there :P I'm a tad concerned because I can't install SP3 (I've tried it a couple of times and thanks to Windows Genuine Disadvantage it breaks and I have to load up a backup). This one here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... layLang=en Does it do the same? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dracion1 Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 I tried that one, no difference unfortunately. I'm not hugely bothered anyway, I don't have anything that requires SP3 and I'm pretty sure I can live without until I get my new computer in the summer :) "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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