 merrie says: We're less than a day away from a global computer meltdown — or a terrific April Fool's joke. At some point on April 1, the Conficker virus, which has quietly infected millions of PCs worldwide to herd them into a "botnet" of linked machines, will phone home for new instructions. What it'll do next is anyone's guess. It could muster enough silicon firepower to take down any Web site on the planet, or send out enough spam to fill the inboxes of every e-mail user on Earth. It could offer itself up to the highest bidder, mostly likely an Eastern European cybercriminal. Or it could do what it's been doing for months — nothing. If it turns out you are infected, Microsoft's put up instructions on how to clean your PC, but it's not easy. If you're not, downloading and installing Microsoft's latest software updates should protect you. So see what Web sites you can visit. If you can navigate the Internet freely except for sites owned by Microsoft or vendors such as Symantec Corp. or F-Secure Corp., your PC might have Conficker or a similar bug. Fixing the problem gets a little trickier. The best remedy is to have a friend whose computer is not infected download a removal tool from Microsoft or another vendor and then e-mail the tool to you. A list of free Conficker removal programs is available at www.confickerworkinggroup.org. Note that Conficker blocks infected machines from running removal tools with "Conficker" in the name. So you might have to change the name of the file (right-click on it and select "rename") befo... |
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