Dead or alive
The Conficker worm has infected approximately 12 million computers. Even after Micrsoft issued a patch to plug the vulnerability the worm is still propagating. Conficker is able to spread through USB drives and through networks by guessing usernames and passwords.
While Conficker has yet to cause any harm to the millions of infected machines it regularly phones home checking for updates.
In this case home is a seemingly randomly generated domain. While security experts have uncovered the secret of the domain generation and are in the process of registering domains before the creator can this has not helped to stop the spread of the worm.
Conficker is the first worm since Sasser in 2004 to target a remote service vulnerability. It is because of the imminent threat of chaos Microsoft has put a price on the head of the worm creator to the tune of $250,000. A worthy prize for any script kiddy.
Michael Reed
