Have you encountered Win32/Conficker.B or ‘April Fool’s Day Virus’ with your PC’s. This is one of the hottest PC Worms nowadays just recently discovered in 2009. I will disscuss to you some of the information about it.

Conficker, also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido, is a computer worm that surfaced in October 2008 and targets the Microsoft Windows operating system. The worm exploits a previously patched vulnerability in the Windows Server service used by Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 Beta, and Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta. The worm has been unusually difficult for network operators and law enforcement to counter because of its combined use of advanced malware techniques.

Although the origin of the name “conficker” is not known with certainty, Internet specialists and others have speculated that it is a German portmanteau fusing the term “configure” with “fick”, the German equivalent of fuck. Microsoft analyst Joshua Phillips describes “conficker” as a rearrangement of portions of the domain name ‘trafficconverter.biz’.

Symptoms of infection

If your computer is infected with this worm, you may not experience any symptoms, or you may experience any of the following symptoms:

• Account lockout policies are being tripped.
• Automatic Updates, Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), Windows Defender, and Error Reporting Services are disabled.
• Domain controllers respond slowly to client requests.
• The network is congested.
• Various security-related Web sites cannot be accessed.

Propagation methods

Win32/Conficker.B has multiple propagation methods. These include the following:

• Exploitation of the vulnerability that is patched by security update 958644 (MS08-067)
• The use of network shares
• The use of AutoPlay functionality

Therefore, you must be careful when you clean a network so that the threat is not reintroduced to systems that have previously been cleaned.

Prevention

Click here:  How to Stop Win32/Conficker.B worm from Spreading on your PC