Microsoft Slaps $250K Bounty On Conficker Worm

[Swede]

"The spreading Conficker/Downadup worm is now viewed as such a significant threat that it's inspired the formation of a posse to stop it, with Microsoft leading the charge by offering a $250,000 reward to bring the Conficker malware bad guys to justice. The money will be paid for 'information that results in the arrest and conviction of those responsible for illegally launching the Conficker malicious code on the Internet,' Microsoft said today in a statement, adding it is fostering a partnership with Internet registries and DNA providers such as ICANN, ORG, and NeuStar as well as security vendors Symantec and Arbor Networks, among others, to stop the Conficker worm once and for all. Conficker, also called Downadup, is estimated to have infected at least 10 million PCs. It has been slowly but surely spreading since November. Its main trick is to disable anti-malware protection and block access to anti-malware vendors' Web sites."

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/12/2148224&from=rss

[wtmusic]

1. Ech, put the $250K into development where it belongs nt

[Swede]

2. Read the whole article - this could cause some serious damage.

'It has the potential to infect about 30% of Windows systems online, a potential 300 to 350 million PCs,' says Don Jackson, director of threat intelligence in the counter threat unit at SecureWorks. The worm, first identified in November and suspected to have originated in the Ukraine, is quickly ramping up, and while Downadup today is not malicious in the sense of destroying files — its main trick is to block users from accessing antivirus sites to obtain updates to protect against it — the worm is capable of downloading second-stage code for darker purposes."

[Kalyke]

3. I work at an information security company

(and SecureWorks is a partner of ours).

[wtmusic]

5. My heart goes out to anyone who bothers with WIndows anymore

but frankly I don't understand it. It's crappy software and always has been.

[cliffordu]

6. Yep. GIGO

[villager]

4. I may stay logged in to the Linux side of my machine, for awhile...

n/t

[cliffordu]

7. Yep. Don't fear the penguin.

[TorchTheWitch]

8. I had gotten this stinker!

The most clever exasperating bugaboo ever! You'll know if you got it if you do a web search and any link you click for any search results takes you to a marketing page or even downloads more malware crud. The only way to get rid of it is to use an uninfected computer to download needed tools to find all the infected slop... and there are precious few tools that it doesn't recognize and will let you install.

Took me WEEKS to clean the computer of this menace.