Conficker

Report: Conficker worm bites University of Utah

More than 700 computers at the University of Utah have been infected with the Conficker worm.

The hit includes computers at the university's three hospitals, the Associated Press reported early Sunday.

University spokesman Chris Nelson said the outbreak was detected Thursday, the AP reported. By the next day, the worm had struck at the hospitals, medical school, and the nursing, pharmacy, and health colleges.

Patient records have not been touched, Nelson said. IT cut off Net access for up to six hours on Friday in order to isolate the virus, the AP reported.

Windows users brace for Conficker's wiggle

roundup The Conficker worm is keeping security experts on their toes, trying to scope out exactly how and when it might strike.

Report: Conficker worm bites University of Utah More than 700 computers at the University of Utah, including those at its three hospitals, have been infected with the worm. (Posted in Security by Natalie Weinstein) April 12, 2009 7:04 AM PDT

Conficker also installs fake antivirus software In addition to dropping a mystery payload on infected machines, the Conficker worm installs software that tries to dupe people into paying nearly $50 for fake antivirus software. (Posted in Security by Elinor Mills) April 10, 2009 4:00 PM PDT

Researchers say Conficker is all about the money Conficker's ties to a large spamming and password-stealing botnet give credence to the speculation that money, and possibly malicious Eastern European hackers, are behind the latest Internet worm infection. (Posted in Security by Elinor Mills) April 9, 2009 11:43 AM PDT

Conficker wakes up, updates via P2P, drops payload Conficker is updating itself on infected computers via peer-to-peer technology and is programmed to stop running on May 3, Trend Micro researchers say. Podcast: Conficker using P2P to spread payload (Posted in Security by Elinor Mills) April 8, 2009 3:27 PM PDT

Eye chart can help diagnose Conficker April Fools' Day passed with much angst over and little action from the Conficker worm, but that doesn't mean it's not a threat. Quickly determine if you're infected with this "eye chart." (Posted in The Download Blog by Seth Rosenblatt) April 3, 2009 5:36 PM PDT

All quiet on the Conficker front. Now what? Just because Conficker was quiet doesn't mean it won't act in the future, turning unsuspecting PCs into spam-sending drones or stealthily stealing passwords from people, experts say. (Posted in Security by Elinor Mills) April 1, 2009 8:05 AM PDT

Countdown to Conficker--a bust so far Researchers say the worm is awake on computers in Asia where it's already April 1, but so far it hasn't taken much action. We'll keep you updated here. (Posted in Security by Elinor Mills) April 1, 2009 6:35 AM PDT

Podcast: Worm 'phoning home' but getting no answer Security watchers at McAfee say that Conficker is trying to communicate with master computers but isn't getting through. (Posted in Larry Magid at Large by Larry Magid) April 1, 2009 5:21 AM PDT

Conficker flaw reveals which computers are infected Researchers find flaw in Conficker that lets them detect which computers have the legitimate Microsoft patch and which were "patched" by the worm itself. Conficker demonstrates complexity of IT security (Posted in Security by Elinor Mills) March 30, 2009 1:54 p.m. PDT

Podcast: Conficker worm dissected David Perry, education director of Internet security company Trend Micro, discusses the implications of the worm.(Posted in Larry Magid at Large by Larry Magid) March 30, 2009 11:04 p.m. PDT

Conficker worm might originate in China A Vietnamese security firm concludes that the Conficker worm has the same root as the Nimda, which the firm believes originated in China. Malware probes find a China angle (Posted in Security by Dong Ngo) March 29, 2009 7:30 p.m. PDT

'60 Minutes': What's next for the Conficker worm? A report on the CBS News television news program examines one of the Internet's most dangerous computer worms. (Posted in Security by CBS Interactive staff) March 29, 2009 7:00 p.m. PDT

FAQ: Conficker time bomb ticks, but don't expect boom Worm's latest variant is set to start hitting random domains on April 1. But security experts say the damage might not be as serious as the hype suggests. U.K. parliament computers get Confickered (Posted in Security by Elinor Mills) March 25, 2009 5:10 p.m. PDT

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Conficker also installs fake antivirus software

Researchers have discovered another feature of the Conficker worm that provides an additional clue about the intent of the creators--the worm installs malware that masquerades as antivirus software, Trend Micro said on Friday.

The worm, which has infected millions of Windows-based computers on the Internet, is downloading a program called Spyware Protect 2009 and displaying warning messages saying that the computer is infected and offering to clean it up for $49.95, according to the Trend Micro blog.

The infection alerts repeatedly appear and experts are worried that people may be clicking on them and paying for the software just … Read more

Top 5 deadliest viruses

In the wake of the Conficker worm, we dug into our research vault, known as the Web, and ferreted out the five deadliest computer viruses/worms of all time. Turns out all we needed to do was read the London Times. And all they needed to do was ask a security company.

It goes without saying that you should watch the video to see what the Top 5 are. But you have another incentive: for this week we are giving away a size-large throwback CNET fleece, as modeled in the video by Intern Chris Knox and Producer Sarah Harbin.

Watch the video, … Read more

Week in review: Powerless to protect power grid?

Recent events have raised the question of whether the United States is prepared to defend its electricity grid.

Spies from other countries have been detected hacking into the United States' electricity grid, leaving traces of their activity and raising concerns over the security of the U.S. energy infrastructure to cyberattacks. The spies apparently sought ways to navigate and control the power grid as well as the water and sewage infrastructure, according to a published report. It's part of a rising number of intrusions, the article said, quoting former and current national security officials.

There have long been concerns … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Foursquare drives location-based apps buzz

Even though Google bought and subsequently shuttered niche mobile app Dodgeball early this year, the location-based apps category is going strong. Dodgeball's creator has a very similar follow-up product out that's gaining lots of buzz due to its debut at the SXSW conference last month. Foursquare, as this one is called, is a mobile app that helps people find old friends and make new friends while out on the town. CNET's Josh Lowensohn stops by to talk about the broader appeal of this newly popular category of mobile applications.

Also in today's podcast: the Conficker worm … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 949: Leonard Nimoy melts your pants

There is a lot about pants in today's episode. I mean, the French Parliament killed the Net piracy bill, Conficker started adding a key logger, and the AP does more stupid stuff. But really, it's all about pants. The new "Star Trek" movie was shown to a surprised group of Austin fans. Apparently, it melted one man's pants, it was so good. And there are also some robotic pants in today's show. But, the show is far from pants in the British sense. Just listen.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 949

French … Read more

Researchers say Conficker is all about the money

The Conficker worm that has infected millions of Windows-based computers will likely be used to send spam and steal data much like one of the nastiest botnets on the Internet does, researchers said on Thursday after finding links between the two worms.

A week after failing to do anything but snore, the much hyped Conficker worm was roused from its slumber on Wednesday, with infected computers transmitting updates via peer-to-peer and dropping a mystery payload onto PCs. Researchers suspect that the payload program may be a keystroke logger, a spam generator, or both.

Conficker now also tries to connect to … Read more

Podcast: Conficker using P2P to spread payload

As CNET News has been reporting, researchers at Trend Micro have discovered that the Conficker worm, which did basically nothing on April 1, is now updating itself by using a peer-to-peer network between infected Windows PCs to pass on payload instructions.

Because the worm's instructions are encrypted, as of 7:20 p.m. PDT Wednesday night, researchers were still unable to determine the nature of the payload, according to Trend Micro education director David Perry.

Still , in this audio podcast, Perry had plenty of information about how the worm is finally passing on instructions to infected PCs.

Conficker wakes up, updates via P2P, drops payload

This story has been updated. See below for details.

The Conficker worm is finally doing something--updating via peer-to-peer between infected computers and dropping a mystery payload on infected computers, Trend Micro said on Wednesday.

Researchers were analyzing the code of the software that is being dropped onto infected computers but suspect that it is a keystroke logger or some other program designed to steal sensitive data off the machine, said David Perry, global director of security education at Trend Micro.

The software appeared to be a .sys component hiding behind a rootkit, which is software that is designed to hide … Read more