CNN Wrote:It's called the Conficker time bomb, and this morning the clock is ticking. Conficker is a massive computer virus that has already infected millions of PCs worldwide, by some estimates, 10 million. Computer experts say it's programmed to become active tomorrow on April Fools' Day.

CNN's Errol Barnett tells us how Conficker works.

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ERROL BARNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: First, the worm, which is a complex computer program, is created and sent out through the Internet, landing in servers that then search for computers on the network to hack into. It preys on computers with weak network passwords, old anti-virus software or Windows software not recently updated. Once inside, it creates a so-called zombie computer that can be controlled by the worm's designer.

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ROBERTS: Well, joining us now to talk more about the potential threat from Conficker is Nicholas Thompson. He's the senior editor of "Wired Magazine."

Microsoft is offering $250,000 to the person or persons who stop this virus. You know, get in there and sort of disarm it. You know, obviously, they're pretty concerned about this whole thing.

NICHOLAS THOMPSON, SENIOR EDITOR, "WIRED MAGAZINE": Well, extremely concerned. There a lot of people who are very affected. And wee don't know where it comes from. Wee don't know who designed it. All wee know is that they're very good.

ROBERTS: Right. Well, there's some belief that it might have come from China. There's an article in CNET today suggesting that it might have come from China. No proof of that?

THOMPSON: No proof. But there are a couple of interesting things about it.

First of all, most of the computers affected are not in the United States. Less than two percent of all the computers affected are in the U.S. according to some at Symantec I talked to yesterday. They're mostly in Russia, China, Argentina and Brazil. Partly that's because they're using pirated versions of Microsoft software. So, that's what people suspect. Those who aren't auto update as well, they're not as well protected. Now, where did this person come from? I don't know. Maybe China because that is where it started the spread first. Maybe the Ukraine. In the initial version, there was some very tantalizing code that said "Don't affect any computers in the Ukraine." Now, it could have been a Ukrainian trying to protect his countrymen, or it could have been a Russian trying to put the blame on the Ukrainians, or it could have been a Brazilian. Wee don't know.

ROBERTS: Wow. This cyber world...

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: Conspiracy theories abound. So, what does this worm do and what will it do -- I mean, what does it do once inside the computer and what might it do April 1st, when it's set to either update or become active?

THOMPSON: Well, it will probably just update April 1st. So, probably nothing will happen on April 1st, but some point after April 1st, it could do whatever the people who control it want it to do. So my guess is that they'll use it to empty your bank account. They'll use it to turn your computer into machine that will send out sPa/\/\ for them. They'll data mine your computer, get all of your information and sell that information. So, you really don't want this on your machine.

ROBERTS: So, I mean, wee have seen virus programs that get into your mailbox and they take all of your address books and they send out e-mails to everybody in your address book.

THOMPSON: Right. ROBERTS: You know, what -- what more could this one do than that? I mean, this idea of being able to get to your bank account is certainly troubling.

THOMPSON: So, what it can do is it can install what's called key log-in software. And what that will do is it will record every keystroke you type in. So, you go to your bank account. You go to chase.com. You type in your name and your password. It will record that. It will then dump that into a database. They'll be able to mine the database, extract all the usernames and passwords. They will sell it to somebody. And whoever buys it is not going to do nice things with it.

ROBERTS: So, how do you know if you've got it?

THOMPSON: Well, that's actually hard, but there's one cool way to do it. One thing that Conficker does is it disables your access to anti-virus sites. So, go to your computer right now, if you have Microsoft Windows, and check and see if you can get to Symantec.com or McAfee.com or Microsoft.com. And if you can, you don't have the virus.

ROBERTS: And what do you do if you find that you do have it?

THOMPSON: Well, then your first thing is you try to go to Microsoft and get something called the Malicious Software Download Tool. It will get rid of all the malicious software. Type in malicious software and Microsoft, and it will go and will give you software to help you get rid of it. Now if you can't get to the Microsoft site to get that, you have to get somebody else to download it and give you that file.

ROBERTS: Put it on a CD and then you upload it.

THOMPSON: And the most important thing is make sure your anti- virus software is up-to-date and active and constantly updating itself.

ROBERTS: Wow. Fascinating stuff. Nicholas Thompson, thanks for being with us this morning. It's good to see you.

THOMPSON: Thank you.

Source

ZOMG it can be a ukrainian or a russian pretending to be ukrainian, or a even a brazilian


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