10.31.09
Gemini version available ♊︎Conficker Bounty Did Not Work, Windows Zombies Still Run Rampant
Summary: Many months after Microsoft attempted to resolve Conficker using a bounty, things are worse than ever
THE BBC almost never explains that viruses are a Windows problem and the following new report is no exception.
An IT expert from Scotland has denied sending out a computer virus which allowed him to spy on strangers using their webcams.
We have also come across many headlines about Facebook Trojans. It is all over the news, but the obvious does not get mentioned.
Our reader Will has noticed this report about Conficker [via], which is still affecting many millions of people and businesses.
The Conficker worm has passed a dubious milestone. It has now infected more than 7 million [m] computers, security experts estimate.
Some individual sources say that almost half of all Windows PCs are compromised, whereas Microsoft finds that about a third of them are infected. Either way, the total figure of Windows zombies could be something close to 300,000,000, so Conficker is just a tiny part of this problem.
Webopedia has added a new page about the term “zombie”, where it fails to give Windows the special mention it deserves.
(1) A computer that has been implanted with a daemon that puts it under the control of a malicious hacker without the knowledge of the computer owner. Zombies are used by malicious hackers to launch DoS attacks.
Why not say “crackers” instead of “malicious hackers”?
At the beginning of the year Microsoft offered a $250,000 reward for anyone who helps the capture of Conficker's maker/s. It was nothing but a blame-shifting attempt and it never worked. █
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Needs Sunlight said,
November 3, 2009 at 11:14 am
It’s also interesting to note that the countries with the highest infection rates are being driven to Linux and other resilient, immune systems.
With other security problems, M$ usually waits until an infection is hitting a critical tipping point before taking visible action. In this case, defections hitting a critical tipping point make it easy for M$ to point at a decrease in M$ licensing along with the increase in Windows malware and misidentify the causal relationship.