So, April 1st has come and gone and our PCs are still working and the information super highway is still flowing. The Conficker worm was a real "bust." One person I talked to said that it was an insignificant malware program that was over-hyped by the antivirus and security software companies in order to boost sales.
So are we safe now?
I would not be so sure that we are "all safe." True, April 1st didn't turn into the digital Armageddon that was forecasted, but who knows why it turned out that way. It's not due to the fact it was eradicated, because it wasn't; it just didn't do anything. It's still out there. In fact several news organizations and Internet research companies are saying that the Conficker infection is more widespread than first believed. So it could be just waiting for the right time to launch its attack (whatever that may be).
So what do we do now?
- If you haven’t scanned all the PCs in your office, you should download a Conficker detection program and run it on every PC in your company.
- Run Windows Update and make sure the patch detailed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067 is applied.
- Turn on Windows Automatic Updates to continually update your PC with the latest patches.