Never before has antivirus software been as important as it is today. The Conficker virus (or more correctly, Conficker worm) is posing a serious threat on computers and computer networks worldwide. Currently millions of computers are infected by this worm which is constantly mutating and posing serious threats to the integrity of the internet. Currently the sinister activities of this worm mostly concern spam email, which in itself is both an annoyance and a security threat, however experts fear that the worm might turn its activities to far more dangerous exploits in the future.
The story of how Conficker has gained such a stranglehold is rapidly becoming legendary. Despite a concerted and coordinated attack on the worm by computer and software specialists, Conficker has succeeded in penetrating successive layers of defence in order to take control of computers within the home and organisations such as government offices, universities and the military. Once a computer becomes infected, the worm turns it into what is termed a zombie computer under the control of the worm's creators.
Despite the fact that Conficker has been around since October 2008, it is still at large and is continuing to spread. The worm is able to mutate continually and receive instructions from its creators through peer to peer updates, and it is this ability that makes the worm so dangerous and elusive.
It is extremely important that everyone who uses a computer connected to the internet should check that their machine is not infected by the Conficker worm. To do this you need to install antivirus software onto your computer and make sure that the virus database installed with this software is completely up to date. Then you need to run a 100% scan of your files. If Conficker is present it will be detected and you will receive a warning along with instructions and options on removing it. You should follow these carefully and once you have removed the infection then you should enable your antivirus software to monitor your computer for threats of re-infection. As Conficker is often mutating and other viruses are released periodically, you should ensure that your antivirus software database is kept up to date on a daily basis using automatic updates.
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This article has been written with online security firmly in mind. There are many steps you can take to ensure the safety of your data.
For more information on how to keep your computer virus-free, visit K7 Computing.
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