Conficker Virus Strikes April 1 – What You Need to Know

Over the past few days there has been a lot of concern about the Conficker virus that is expected to strike on April 1, 2009.  Callers to my radio show asked me if they should be concerned, and my answer was pretty straight forward.

If the following describes you, you should be relatively safe from the Conficker virus:

• You have a genuine (not illegal) copy of Windows
• You have up-to-date Antivirus Software from a company like Symantec (not free antivirus from your ISP or Free AVG)
• You are current with your Windows Updates
• You can get to the website www.symantec.com

With that said, there are also important details about this infection that you should know to help keep your friends and relatives safe as well.

The Conficker virus was first detected in November of 2008, and Microsoft released a patch to address the issue then.  As long as you have this patch, your computer will not be impacted by Conficker.

The majority of the current infections appear to be in China, Brazil, Russia, India, and Argentina, all counties with rampant software piracy problems.

The reason the media has focused on an April 1 attack deadline is because no one knows what Conficker will do once it is activated in those countries.

Because the Internet is a global instrument, it is possible that computers in those countries might be able to attack websites or systems in the U.S. to create DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks that could slow online traffic opr prevent you from viewing some websites for a short period.

My personal guess on COnficker is that a whole lot of nothing will happen on April 1, with a possible follow up attack on April 2nd when no one ius expecting it.  Now there’s an April fools joke!