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[Vaiolis]

I've heard from a few sources that there is some sort of virus called the "Conficker Worm" (also Downadup) that has millions of computers infected. And apparently it is supposed to do something (bad I'm guessing) on April 1st. I've no idea how wide-spread this virus is, but I suggest that nobody turn on/have on their computer at this date. It's only affecting windows luckily, but as I'm not positive, perhaps all platforms should be wary. I just learned myself that it has been around for quite a while, but April 1st is said to be the date it does... whatever it is told to. Microsoft put $250,000 USD into trying to find this virus, and many companies are planning on turning off their computers for that day.

Now, I'm fairly skeptical with all this, but as far as I can tell, keeping a computer off for a day is far better than having who-knows-what occur. So, I suggest everyone do so, and please spread this message to anyone else who may not know about it.

If everyone here pretty much took this information as common knowledge, I apologize for my naivete. And for those who don't believe me, search for it on google or something.

As an edit, http://www.bdtools.net/ offers a tool to remove all versions of the worm. Using this might not be a bad idea either, but I haven't tried it, and have absolutely no idea if it is safe. Sounds safe enough though.

[penguinofhonor]

Here's an article on it. Look stuff up, Vaiolis.

[Vaiolis]

Sorry, I didn't think I needed to place all that much into this. Just wanted to alert those who might not be aware of it to its existence is all. And with how fast internet rumors can go these days, I dislike stating much as fact.

[Yanlin]

Why turn them off? Why couldn't I simply disconnect my connection to the internet for a day?

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

Why turn them off? Why couldn't I simply disconnect my connection to the internet for a day?

Because that you may already had your computers infected, and when it can't connect to teh intertube, it wipes out your HDD.

OMG... Do I need to set up a virtual machine, just in case?

[JoshuaFH]

April 1st you say? I'd be surprised if it just popped up a humorous joke.

If it's more malicious, than I'd reckon that's pretty close to terrorism.

[Fishersalwaysdie]

Conficker Worm? More like

[woose1]

Oh fisher, you dog.
And: April 1st? Evil worm virus?
I'm not shutting off my rig.

[Strife26]

I'll take my risks to be on these boards then.

[Alexhans]

I had it at work... a partner lent me his pendrive and bam! once inside hard to get it out.

I believe the reward is like 500.000 us$ now...

The impressive thing about the virus is that it seems to be unable to be removed with any of the common Antivirus tools and prevents from downloading Microsoft's repairing services. 

I detect it every time with AVG... Move it to the vault. Delete it.  Whatever.... But each time I turn my computer on again I run a scan upon startup and there it is...

[soup_alex]

Conficker Worm? More like

Love.

I hope nobody minds me quoting this here, in my mind there's no such thing as too much Price (ahem, the Price is never too high )
Oh, and you know in non-America (or at least, in the UK), this film was released as "Witchfinder General". I have to say that I much prefer this title; besides, Poe = nothing at all to do with this film.

[qwertyuiopas]

If windows can't delete it, try with linux, check msconfig, that kind of stuff.

It could be loading through settings that can be changed in msconfig, and deleting it through linux or the windows recovery console(can be accessed through the install disk somehow) would not give it tile to recreate itself.

[Cogsmith]

Not worried. Hell I'm not even turning off my 'net on the first.

Looking at the link put up by penguinofhonor it's obvious that the person(s) coding this is either a professional who has training or a complete out-of-the-blue savant. Regardless, for them to be able to just constantly top security measures like that it's obvious they have some pretty decent support. Which costs money. Which means either they're willing to take a pretty big financial hit, OR this a money making scheme.

If it is a money making scheme then they almost certainly DON'T want to break the system, since it's what they're stealing money from. In general I would just avoid using paypal, checking your bank statements online anything like that. I expect either a truly MASSIVE wave of spam, or out-of-the-loop people's money to go unexpectedly missing.
However for people who have heard of this I expect to experience a big lot of nothing, and a royal pain in the ass removing the thing. Hell if they're clever or real smartasses the virus will uninstall/delete itself when they're done(actually a good idea. Since the encryption method they're using right now is difficult to break it's actually smart for them to cause everything to go
"poof" so no one has time to properly break it, hence it can be used again later)

[woose1]

a truly MASSIVE wave of spam,

'Spam', is a nonpolar completely un-crystalized solid. It cannot acheive the form of a liquid except through very high temperatures.
So, by saying that we will be hit by a 'wave' of spam, you are saying, figuratively of course, that we will be doused with molten liquidated meat products.

Of course if it was just a method of speech, I can understand.
 

[Little]

Does Norton detect this?