Brief Banter By Ben

I usually have a pretty good idea of how widespread a particular piece of malware is by the number of incidents of infection (or reports of infection) that I come across. But when it comes to the Conficker worm (aka Downadup or Kido), I get the feeling that while there’s a lot of hype surrounding this latest bit of malware, actual infections are much lower than some would want you to believe. However, over the past few days the number of enquires I’m getting in relation to Conficker has skyrocketed, so to try to answer people’s questions, and calm people’s fears, I’ve put together a quick “no bull” guide to Conficker.

Some antivirus companies love to hype malware because it’s a great way to sell security products. While Conficker isn’t new (it’s been around since November last year), the April 1st trigger date gives security firms the opportunity to ratchet up the hype a couple of more notches (and help drive concerned users straight into the hands of cybercriminals). However, it’s important to note that it’s unclear right now as to what will happen come the trigger date. However, what is clear is that you will need to be infected to be at risk of anything happening at all.