[Nosferatu]

http://i.gizmodo.com/5183751/giz-explains-...-1#viewcomments

Has anyone else been hearing anything about this?

[Someone Else]

Nope.

Lol April Fools

[Toasty]

Yes. Have been since November.


How come I always get any news related to computers or technology before everyone else here? Oh wait....


Anyway, keep a secure password on your Windows account (Confiker.B is known to brute-force hack them, so anything besides "1234" or really basic words will suffice).

Keep your Anti-Virus program updated (I'd suggest getting AVG Free).

Keep you firewall up to date

And keep windows up to date. Conficker.A (released in November) actually attacked a part of Windows that had been patched last year. Data Forensics suggests that it was meant to attack servers with long update cycles (meaning they wouldn't have gotten the update yet). Regardless, M$ might release a patch that will protect you from Conficker.C, as they've already released one for Conficker.B.


Also, if you're flashdrives or anything that stores stuff and can be plugged into a USB port is corrupted, you might possibly be infected with Conficker.B. Though if you are, you won't be able to get any Microsoft or anti-virus updates, as Conficker will block web access to most of the sites.


Arstechnica has some good articles:
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2008/...s-us-wonder.ars
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/...in-24-hours.ars
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/...-activation.ars
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/...atient-zero.ars
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/...erc-defense.ars
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/...d-consumers.ars

List of keywords blocked by conficker when accessing the web

[Swedishfish]

Seriously. I don't get why people keep writing these f**king viruses... They do nothing, but get people to hate you and get a whole bunch of goverments after you.

[Someone Else]

The people that do it are 40-year-old basement dwellers who hate the world and love Oreos.

[Toasty]

Swedishfish, on Mar 28 2009, 12:19 PM, said:

Seriously. I don't get why people keep writing these f**king viruses... They do nothing, but get people to hate you and get a whole bunch of goverments after you.

Money, duh.


The guy who wrote this worm could easily use it to DDoS anything he wanted, throw a wave of spam over the entire globe, or even use it like a black market version of Google, where you could search for people's personal information. Identity theft would be a walk in the park.

And there's a lot of people who would pay the guy to do those kinds of things.

[Nosferatu]

Toasty, on Mar 28 2009, 06:29 PM, said:

And there's a lot of people who would pay the guy to do those kinds of things.

*raises hand*

[Sea of Time]

Someone Else, on Mar 28 2009, 01:43 PM, said:

The people that do it are 40-year-old basement dwellers who hate the world and love Oreos.

Actually, most hackers are 14-20 year old Russian males. Weird, right?

And conficker can be used to find credit card information, banking info for those who bank online, or anything else financial. Hackers go by the ideal that, "if you're good at something, never do it for free".

[Split Infinity]

Heath Ledger is hax?

[Swedishfish]

Quote

Actually, most hackers are 14-20 year old Russian males. Weird, right?

Really? That's... Surprising...
Anyways, I saw a special on conficker on cnn this morning, less than 2% of the infected computers are in america, most of the infected computers are in China, Russia, Ukraine, etc.

Quote

And keep windows up to date. Conficker.A (released in November) actually attacked a part of Windows that had been patched last year. Data Forensics suggests that it was meant to attack servers with long update cycles (meaning they wouldn't have gotten the update yet). Regardless, M$ might release a patch that will protect you from Conficker.C, as they've already released one for Conficker.B.

They did. Sorta... You can use this to get rid of conficker.

[Toasty]

I'm talking about a patch, not a scanner.

But apparently there's a surefire way of scanning for and discovering conficker now.

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/...red-debuted.ars

[Swedishfish]

Quote

But apparently there's a surefire way of scanning for and discovering conficker now.

Or, since conficker blocks anti-virus sites, (mccafe etc.) you can just try that.

[Toasty]

Except that it also blocks all things related to microsoft as well.

If you've got conficker, the only way to update or anything is to download them on another machine and install them on the infected on via flash drive.

But since you can do that, it's better to just get this scanner http://nmap.org/download.html, the scanner in the Ars Technica article).

And Microsoft's MSRT, which has been around for a while mind you, doesn't take care of confiker as far as I know. Microsoft hasn't yet released an update for it that allows it to detect Conficker, so it's useless.

[Swedishfish]

Quote

If you've got conficker, the only way to update or anything is to download them on another machine and install them on the infected on via flash drive.

Good point. Then you hope the flash drive isn't infected.

[Toasty]

All you have to do is wipe it to get rid of the infection.

[Nosferatu]

SUP DAWGS. IT'S ALMOST D-DAY TIEM.

GET IN UR SAFE HOUSES AND BAR THEM THAR DOORSES.

[Toasty]

Moar liek put up ur firwallz lawl

[Nosferatu]

And here... we... go.

Edit: Baaaaawwwwwww nothing happened. It could have been because I didn't have it, but seriously. I'm kinda dissapointed.

[Toasty]

Yeah, no news or anything.

[Drizzy Drake]

ILOVEYOU

[Someone Else]

I knew nothing would happen.

[Drizzy Drake]

Do I look fat in this pic?

*sends mail with attachment*

[Toasty]

Wrong kind of virus numbnuts.

[Drizzy Drake]

Um, eye noes that. But an article said how they were similar, so uh, fuck you jew.

[Toasty]

They're not similar in any way. One is a virus transmitted through e-mails.

The other one infects systems by itself, with the help of stupid people (though stupid people are usually easier to infect).

i.e. one kinda sorta has a mind of it's own.