Conficker Bounty Did Not Work, Windows Zombies Still Run Rampant
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2009-10-31 08:40:00 UTC
- Modified: 2009-10-31 08:40:00 UTC
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 $250,000 reward for anyone who helps the capture of Conficker's maker/s. It was
nothing but a blame-shifting attempt and it never worked.
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Comments
Needs Sunlight
2009-11-03 16:14:23
With other security problems, M$ 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.