Should We Shut Down Our Computers?
 

I was just watching 60 Minutes and they did a bit about the Virus worm "Conflictor". On April 1st (give or take a day), this horrible worm will get new instructions and could possibly infect our PCs..:eek:

From what I understand, there really is no protection against it. You can keep you protections up to date, but this worm finds ways around your protections. When infected, the hackers can transfer money from your account overseas without your knowledge.:eek:

I'm seriously considering shutting down my PC for awhile. It's not just attachments on e-mails, you have to worry about....that's easy, just don't open them.....But, just by clicking on an infected website, you can instantly be infected..:eek:

What are y'all gonna do about this Skeeeery Worm? 60 Minutes noted that even they were infected.....and they thought they were untouchable.

I saw it too, Salpal! The way the Conflicker Worm works, from what I understand, is that it's already in place and sitting dormant until the hacker tells it what to do. I am so tired of so called hackers ruining people's lives. We do banking online and it's just so easy for someone to steal our accts/money. But, then again~ a person can get any info they want from the internet anyway.

I don't think we will have much power over it. Some spyware will catch it if it's up to date, but they are worried about big corporations getting attacked as well.

I have to go away for a minute, so I can cuss about this mess.

checked on Snopes and they said they didn't think it would be a big deal - although one never knows and if it's already on your computer somewhere - unless your antivirus software has already found it - it's too late

Hmmm, well I may take the day off. April Fools day, ironic eh?

There's information about this worm in the Computer & Technology Forum. Who Moi, and Jo*Mar have been kind enought to provide information.

Here's a link : http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread82637.html

I'm going to update my computers tonight, and then I'll probably shut down all the Windows computers for the rest of the week and stay online with my iMac.

I love my iMac. I never used to like Mac's until my dad handed this one down to me.

What's to keep this worm from springing into action before April 1st? Say....March 31st? Now that would be an April Fool's joke. And not a very funny one.

I'm so tired of all these threats. Don't people have better things to do than try and take advantage of others??? :mad:

They said, on 60 minutes that, this is headed by a bunch of Russian Kids and the leader is all of 14 yrs old.

Where are their Parents?:mad:

Probably waiting for little Johnny to hack into some financial institutions files and transfer $$.

They'll be very disappointed if they get into mine!! :o

They say if your windows has been updated since October, you should be fine. Go to windows update and download the latest. Keep your antivirus up to date. AVG offers a nice FREE program. Superantispyware.com offers another very nice free spam/spyware remover that I have found to be awesome!

It is the folks who never think to update their machines, and that dont think they need antispyware stuff that get hit with this stuff. My realtor just got smacked with some sort of a bug on her home computer. she said at work, it all updates automatically, at home, she is responsible for it, and always forgets. now she gets to buy a new machine.

Yes Anne~ the computer forum has alot of info about the Conficker Worm. Even though my pc's are updated and supposedly covered, I am staying offline from Mar 31~ Apr 2. We do our banking online, pay bills etc and it's just too scary for me. The one lady on 60 minutes had alot of $$$$$ stolen from her bank acct and she thought her pc was secure. It's just insane!

On that forum, Moi gave some instructions to go in and remove remote access to your pc, which I did. Check it out.

I did the same thing and took Moi's advise. Although my norton is updated automatically, I double checked and updated it some more..

It will kill me, but my PC will be off and unplugged until the 2nd, also.:eek: I already had to re-enter my OS once this year for a virus..:mad: I don't want to have to do it again....the little thieving jerks..:mad:

yep, i saw it too.

i think it's a good idea to be off line for a few days. the target date is april 1st.
i go online to look at my acct but don't actually move $$$. i'm not even going there until after the 2nd.

Me too Judy. I may sneak in tonight to check my account and then I'll be off until the 2nd too. Don't miss me too much! lol I'll be calling the bank just to be sure. Jim wants to change passwords but I told him this one gets through anyway. See ya on the 2nd!

Waving Bye Bye...See you on the 2nd..:grouphug:

I heard on the news tonight that you need to be concerned about Windows XP, but Vista should be alright.

Really Twinks? That's good to hear because I was wondering how I would stay off the computer. lol GO VISTA!

thanks Twink....vista here so feeling okay:)

I stopped by my church and updated all of the computers there, updated the anti virus software, and the antispyware stuff. I think it will be fine as long as we have the proper updates in place. It was supposed to take advantage of a hole that was created by an update program from October of 2008. As long as you are updated since then, you should be fine.

I for one, cannot miss a day of work, so I will be here.

I made sure all my computers were up to date on antivirus software, and antispyware software. I have run a sweep on all, and today, it started like a charm. I have windows xp.

You know you have the virus if your computer wont allow you to contact windows update, your antivirus update, or antispyware update. If you keep getting a message that you may be infected with a button on the task bar to CLICK here to fix it..... DONT CLICK! That is the virus. Once you click the FIX IT button (which looks incredibly like a windows application) it send out instructions to the home computer to take over yours. If that happens try to run your antivirus software, and or your anti spyware stuff. SuperAntiSpyware.com offers a wonderful FREE product that has been known to pull that bad boy out.

Can you access MIcrosoft.com? how bout Nortons.com? if you can access either...you are safe.

I hope everyone else is safe today too.

I'm glad that I got all my updates done yesterday. I made all my computers get all their antivirus updates, and did as many Windows updates as there were.

I've only got one Windows computer turned on right now (I have 3 ancient Windows computers, one of those little netbooks and one middle aged iMac) So far, the only one of my Windows computers that's turned on is my ancient Toshiba. It doesnt seem to be having any problems.

I just visited Windows Update with it to see if it could access the site, and it seems to be working fine. So, I'm guessing it has all the right updates on it.

I guess I'll get ready for my MS Clinic appointment. It's weird be awake this early. I think I'll go to McD's for breakfast.

I'm making sure to shut this computer down...just in case it does have worms. I dont want it doing anything to itself while I'm walking a straight line and wiggling my fingers and having bright lights shined into my eyeballs.

OK, so I crumbled..:D ..I did update my anti virus and did all my Window's security updates and did a semantic security vulnerablity check and all show that I am fully protected and not vulnerable...:Viking: :smileypray::smileypray:

info on what is happening - or not happening with the worm -
http://www.pcworld.com/article/16238...e_quietly.html

http://www.pcworld.com/article/16226...ml?tk=rel_news

I crumbled too Sally! LOL I haven't logged in on my bank accounts though and wont.

Me too, Sandy. Now that I know I'm not infected, I won't give them a chance to access my Bank info..:eek:

It looks like Constictor was a bust....or....are they waiting until we let our guard down again? I'm going to keep everything up to date, daily, just in case..:eek::cool:

Was anyone here infected? I think the constictor is the worm that crawled into my computor, in the past..:mad:

I saw on the news that hundreds, and thousands of computers were affected by the conficker worm, but no one I personally know what hit.

So far no one I know was affected.

McAfee has a free tool to detect that little worm on your computer. If you download it and then start the program make sure you click the little arrows in the program to bring your IP addy (it has the addy already for you) over from the left to the right side column. Then click the play icon. Do not get worried if you see a message in a box saying you are infected with the worm. That is simply a message that you can click to have sent to any and all systems infected.

McAfee Conficker Detection Tool

We are worm free. lol