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Time to Take Cyber Crime Seriously
The ArtLab —
... 1.) The New York Times' Bits Blog reported yesterday that on April 1, the Conficker virus--which resides quietly on as many as 12 million computers worldwide--is set to activate on April 1. And the scariest part? No one is quite sure what it will do: ...
License to Ill
Internet Evolution: —
... me I can now download Quantum of Solace , along with other HD-quality movies, to watch on the iPod Touch on the way over. But I'm not sure even James Bond can save us from a really bad April Fool's joke this year. Conficker is a program that exploits Microsoft Windows vulnerabilities, and has allegedly infected over 12M computers. John Markoff writes in the Bits blog that, come April 1st, "the worm will generate 50,000 domain names and systematically attempt to communicate with each one." Hopefully Cathay-Pacific's airline reservation system won't be one of those ...
Blanket insecurity
GMSV —
... have a market value so it makes no sense to work hard to find a bug, write an exploit and then give it away. Apple pays people to do the same job, so we know there’s value to this work. No more free bugs.” * The Conficker worm, estimated to have infected as many as 12 million Windows PCs worldwide with code meant to tie them into a giant botnet, is scheduled to activate on April 1, and no one, including an alliance of security firms and network overseers , is sure what that mass of zombie machines will be asked to do , except that it’s probably not something helpful ...
Roundup: Solyndra scores major green, Windows braces for worm, car takes to the skies and more
VentureBeat —
... A wormy April Fool’s Day — The Conficker computer worm is set to be unleashed on April 1, exploiting Windows weaknesses to create millions of zombie computers. “Joke or apocalypse?” asks the New York Times. ...
Giz Explains: How a Brainy Worm Might Jack the World's PCs on April 1 [Giz Explains]
Gizmodo —
... The New York Times' John Markoff rounded up some of the more ingeniously evil possibilities in a compelling article, the most sinister being a "Dark Google," postulated by University of California at San Diego researcher Stefan Savage, that would let bad people scour zombie machines all around the world for data to sell to other bad people. ...
Countdown to Conficker
Download Squad —
Filed under: Internet, Security, Windows, MicrosoftWe're now less than a week away from the scheduled activation of the latest variant of the Conficker worm and experts are still unsure if this is all a hoax or a set-up for security disaster. The worm, which targets an exploit in all versions of Windows from Windows 2000 forward, including Windows 7, started spreading last fall and several variations have subsequently appeared. Although Microsoft released a security patch in October, unpatched ...
Conjuring Conficker and GhostNet
Berkman Center Newsfeed —
Stories about the Conficker worm have been spreading, worm-like, through both online and offline media, while the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto has documented an extensive espionage botnet they've called GhostNet. News of the spread of the Conficker worm has intensified with speculation that, on April 1, something will happen . Indeed, Jonathan Zittrain was recently interviewed for a 60 Minutes story on malware generally, and Conficker specifically (his segments were cut from Sunday's TV version, but you can find them on the 60 ...
April 1 damage from Conficker worm not likely to catch up to hype
L.A. Times Tech Blog —
... Conficker, a digital worm that has reportedly infected millions of Windows computers, has been widely covered in the media, including in the New York Times, which wondered if Wednesday would bring "An April Fools Joke or an Unthinkable Disaster," and on "60 Minutes," which noted that "so far, the bad guys who created it haven't triggered Conficker. It's just sitting out there like a sleeper cell." ...
Is PC Virus Fear Breeding More Attacks?
Fast Company - Technology —
... publicized. Microsoft security head George Stathakopulous explained in the new report that it's possible public worries about Conficker actually contributed to increased virus attacks. ...
Gadgetwise: Twitpocalypse? Yeah, Like Y2K
NYT > Technology —
The Internet isn’t short on bugs — both real and imagined. Remember Y2K? How about the Conflickr worm ? Today comes news of still one more. Behold the ...
