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3-18-10 Facebook virus targets passwords
New password-stealing virus targets Facebook

1-18-09 Downadup or Conficker Virus

1-18-2009 Virus spreads quickly

A computer virus that may leave Microsoft Windows users vulnerable to digital hijacking is spreading through companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia, already infecting close to 9 million machines, according to a private online security firm.

Though computer bugs have become a common affliction, Finland-based F-Secure says a virus it has been tracking for the past several weeks has surged more rapidly through corporate networks than anything they've seen in years.

F-Secure's chief security adviser, Patrik Runald, said the virus's coding suggests a type of bug that alerts computer users to bogus infections on their machines and offers to help by selling them antivirus software.

Instead, the virus is simply spreading to little effect, though it may still pose a threat to infected computers.

"The gang behind this worm haven't used it yet," F-Secure's chief research officer, Nikko Hypponen said by phone. "But they could do anything they like with any of these machines at any time."

Microsoft issued a security update Tuesday to deal with the so-called "Downadup" or "Conficker" virus, which appears to be a new version of a bug that popped up in October.

Most computers with Windows will automatically download Microsoft's security update, but Hypponen said the virus disables updates on infected machines.

While the origin of the virus is a mystery, F-Secure's best guess is it came from Ukraine. Hypponen said it is coded to avoid computers there, which may indicate whoever wrote the virus was trying to avoid drawing attention from local authorities.

what antivirus do you guys use ?

i really like avira's free anti-vir
personal edition .. free!

I use AVG

It seems to use the least of amount of resources to get the job done

I have been using Avast, no problems for last year

downadup is nasty. There is already an estimated 8 million infected worldwide, with almost 60k ip subnets involved. Im in network security for a Fortune 50 company and we've been fighting this thing for two months. Its nasty. And as a precaution, AV alone isnt enough to clean. You need to make sure you've got the latest MS security patches as well, specifically ones related to THIS, THIS, and THIS.

windows update seems to take care of it

is vista as affected as XP?

finally the linked article says it is a "dud"

not important

Well I certainly wouldnt call it a dud based on the activity on our corp network. It initially propagates fairly quickly on port 445, but stage two turns the host machine into an ad bot that calls home to over 35 sites. It creates a hellacious amount of firewall traffic.

well, *i* didn't call it a dud
- that is what the article says .. that it does not exploit its activities as it could
- i guess they are saying it could be a lot worse

have you guys got a handle on it OK, now ?

AND is it true that Vista is more secure than XP in regard to this virus
- curious

Yeah it's settled down. So far this week (with Sunday being our first week day) I havent had to turn any ports down to isolate anything...so thats progress. At one point I got sent a list of 145 infected IP's I had to isolate within the span of about 3 hours. It affected servers, laptops, and desktops.

And youre right...Vista is MUCH better, especially when UAC is enabled.