What the Conficker Worm Does

We have all seen this one in the news, and the reports are stating over 10 million computers worldwide are infected but what does it do?

Conficker sends out spam, and it does this without your knowledge. You will also get pop-ups warning of malware infection. This fake antivirus software will be described as 'SpywareProtect2009' at a price of $49.95. If purchased, credit card information is stolen and the virus downloads even more malicious software.

If you encounter a pop-up like this, do not click on the pop-up, do not close the window. To remove the pop-up without infection, open the Task Manager, (Start Run taskmgr or Ctrl+Alt+Delete), and end all of the running tasks. Reboot the PC and run an antivirus scan.

How to avoid getting infected with Conficker

Users whose computers are not configured to receive updates from Microsoft are most at risk. Make sure that your OS has all the updates available from Microsoft and that you are running an up-to-date anti-virus product.