Conficker Worm

April Fools!!

Since the 1st is now behind us, you might be thinking if your system hasn't hiccupped that life is good and you are out of the woods---NOT TRUE.

April 1st is merely the date on which infected systems were scheduled to start checking various Web servers for further instructions. Security analysts don't expect the worm to do any significant damage immediately, so if you don't have Windows updated or you have turned off Windows Auto update, then you are still at risk.

According to a security firm called SRI International (a nonprofit R&D org), 54% of machines are infected with the worm world wide, mostly on systems with illegitimate copies. This is a huge number to be sure.

Unfortunately, this worm uses the unprotected PCs to infect other unprotected PCs. I don't have a stat on how many "legitimate" copies of Windows are NOT protected, but I'd say it's pretty high. Almost every system I evaluate is not up-to-date with all the necessary patches.

Why? Because Microsoft wants to be sure you have a registered copy, and to do this you have to install something called WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage). If you aren't paying attention, it is easy to avoid installing this. In fact, who needs another app running in the background anyway?

It gets worse... WGA is buggy... Sometimes it will detect that you do not have a legitimate copy even when you in fact do! Oh, the master minds at Microsoft. Personally, I think since MS can't seem to improve on an operating system they developed 7 or 8 years ago (geez, at Intel if we waited for even 4 years to come out with a new technology, AMD would be the only game in town). :-)

Moreover, I've installed WGA three times now... Apparently, there are updates to this program as well. In short, the auto update feature in Windows may not be enough to protect you. You should really do a manual update more than once to make sure you have all the necessary updates.

Microsoft has gotten a lot of heat for the way they handle updates, and I don't sympathize with them in the least. They need to stop trying to generate revenue from collecting on pirated versions, and just concentrate on developing a solid product that just works!

Bill, are you listening?