NVDi Support News & Alerts

Hitting your favorite search engine for Conficker virus information and tools may be a risky proposition right now.

But first, what has gone before…

• If you have been following “best practices” — your security patches are current and you have functioning, up-to-date antivirus — you needn’t worry about Conficker.
• If you’ve been remiss about security, you probably don’t need to worry about Conficker, but it sure wouldn’t hurt to check your system. See the “Conficker/Downadup detection and removal” article for details on how to do this. See “The Conficker/Downadup panic” for background. And at least get a decent antivirus program up and running, for crying out loud!

OK. Now, the reason searching for information about Conficker is risky is because the bad guys have poisoned many of the search results with fake sites. Most are likely scams of one sort or another — selling fake antivirus software is a common activity, as is trying to sucker you into installing spyware or other unwanted junk. At least one site is actively serving up malware. The Conficker Working Group is maintaining a steadily growing  list of these malicious sites. This ZDNet posting has additional information.

Bottom line: Searching on phrases like “Conficker virus”, “Conficker removal”, “Conficker nmap” and other similar terms is not a good idea right now. Instead, go directly to one of the major security-related web sites or to a reputable technical news source and search within their sites for information.

Here are some places to start:

• Monitor this very web log. We try to be both reputable and technically accurate.
• ESET
• F-Secure
• Kaspersky Lab
• Symantec
• Trend Micro

Tags: Conficker virus, Downadup virus