Anti-virus software: Conflicker - the virus wars heat up.

The Conflicker virus is a thoroughly nasty critter. In fact it is a computer worm in that it can spread over networks without the need for other code being executed. A massive number of computers have been infected by it since it first made its appearance in the latter part of 2008. Estimates are up to 15 million computers by February 2009 and the number is growing rapidly. In fact it is possible that these high figures are a little sensationalist, though at least 10 million IP addresses have been infected. . Even though Microsoft distributed a patch to protect their operating systems from infection many millions of computers remain vulnerable.

Conflicker is indeed very powerful. It targets various security services on the computer, for instance it blocks security updates occurring, and other security systems are disabled. Once it has created vulnerabilities in the computer, in effect protecting itself, it connects to the internet and downloads a host of additional of malware patches. It infects a number of system routines in the Windows operating system and spreads itself to additional computers. It does this by attempting to discover admin passwords. The fact that so many computers have been infected is testimony to the power of this worm.

It is thought that Chinese computer experts were the first to craft this worm. It propagates as a DLL which attaches itself to svchost.exe and runs every time the computer boots up. In order to protect your computer from infection it is essential to have the latest Microsoft security updates installed on your operating system. If it is already too late and you are already infected, then it is essential that you remove the system as quickly as possible. Make sure that your antivirus software has the latest updates installed and then run a full virus scan. If your computer is infected you have two choices. You can use the facilities within your anti-virus software to isolate and remove the virus or you can use the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool. After you have cleaned your computer there is still likely to have been damage to some executable files and even loss of data, but at least you will have a clean system.

To prevent re-infection make sure you keep your antivirus software and security patches up to date.
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Make sure that your antivirus software has the latest updates installed and then run a full virus scan. If your computer is infected you have two choices. You can use the facilities within your anti-virus software to isolate and remove the virus or you can use the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool. After you have cleaned your computer there is still likely to have been damage to some executable files and even loss of data, but at least you will have a clean system.