Windows Virus warning: Seriously. Not a joke in any way.

[danjite]

If you run a Windows machine with ANY browser- not just Internet Explorer- and you can read this post, but you cannot get to www.windowsupdate.com, or GRIsoft.com (home of AVG antivirus), or Trend Micro, or Sophos, McAfee or Kaspersky or any other antivirus site, assume you are already infected with ConFicker. Take your computer offline and seek

Comments

[randomdreams]

linux ftw?

[danjite]

Well, yes, and OSX, too.

Except that a potentially 100,000,000 computer botnet going all out could really- really- screw with my internet access.

Think of the lost tweets, man!

[unixronin]

Exactly. Even assuming no new infections, consider the potential of a 12-million-computer simultaneous distributed denial-of-service attack against ALL OF the DNS root nameservers.

By the way, for anyone already infected, I have mirrored a number of the Conficker worm removal tools at my domain, which is not subject to Conficker's access blocking of antivirus sites.

[danjite]

I did just before I sent e-mail out the 100-or-so older folks who don't read my social media posts.

Oh, did I!

I am in NZ, don't forget. ALL my data is coming from one of three thin pipes. As to where those pipes are connected at teh pther end.... sheesh.

People don't get this stuff. I don't even get this stuff anymore- I hung up my guns ten years back, but I know enough to know I don't know and to trust others who do.

and to bloody repost.

[siobhan_1]

Happy to know I'm apparently still clean.

[danjite]

No, download at will.

Just keep updated and anti-virused.

Oh- on general principles- when is the last time you backed uup your critical data?

[richdrich]

Whateva...

I've seen this "imminent death of the Internet, news and sport up next" rather a few times. If you stay updated, firewalled and virus checked, nothing bad will happen.

I think some people in IT security see themselves as a cross between Sherlock Holmes, Buck Rogers and GI Joe - when actually it's the same old come in, code some fixes, flick them to testing, go home as any other coding job.

(Or, if you're a PR flack like Graham Cluley, it's ask the techs what explouts they've seen, write up a hysterical press release, email it to 200 lazy jourmos, wait for the calls to flood in).

[danjite]

Precisely.

Alas, many people I know- really- aren't good enough at "IT" to have the automatic updater correctly set-up, don't understand what a firewall is and have a dead version of the AVG Freeware they don't know what to do with. Thus, each year when this happens, I send out my annual dire update and hope that the folks who get it really get it and have the sense to ask their children or grandchildren to help them and thus the wee bots are eliminated one-by-one and intergenerational communication is increased, if only for a few minutes.

[meesto]

Thanks for the head's up. Glad to see I am OK - I've been very regular with my AVG and security updates.

I hope you aren't losing too much sleep on this!

[danjite]

Naah... I am a Mac guy. I just have friends who think PC ownership is cheaper just 'cos of the lower price tag, is all.