I have heard that Microsoft already has a patch out. Please check their site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Microsoft

It amazes me that people innoculate themselves and their children for ANYTHING, even when the shots are for the wrong disease, but won't take simple precautions to safeguard their computers, and to many, their computer is their "baby". If people are on the internet without a firewall, antivirus and malware protection; open up any email they get, including attachments, regardless of the sender, and use Internet Explorer and Microsoft's email programs, well, they deserve what they get. They should have their computers confiscated and made to stand in the corner for 2 hours. Not unlike cars, computers need very simple, basic, but REQUIRED maintenance occasionally. Then occasionally something like this gets overhyped and people panic. Take care of your computers and they'll take care of you.

It's actually not a bad idea to wait a week or two to install major updates to see about bugs. Don't lose sleep over that. They'll know about the bugs within hours to a day or so and though I don't often commend Microsoft, they do a pretty good job on fixing the buggy patches. Now if only they could debug their OSs. I do not have my system set to automatically update Windows. I do the updates manually. I do have the antivirus running, update automatically and run a monthly malware check.

Whenever these things come up, I ask the question of the day: Have you backed up important stuff lately? How many haven't? Would you lose sleep if everything on your computer disappeared?

BTW, before panicking, be aware that Microsoft issued a patch for this in 2008 so if you haven't updated since then, well, see above. Also there's a number of other articles on this that don't share the doom and gloom of this blog. Be informed and make your own decision.

Happy computing!

Here is a link that might be useful: Washington Post article

Lydia,
I heard about it today from a family member who works for a university.
I did a lot of reading about it. Very interesting...
Thanks for posting about it!

I heard about it one suggestion was not to log on the net on Apr 1st

hmmm...according to the link below it seems by Jan 2009 it had already infected 9 million computers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Conflicker continues its rounds

I read today (don't remember where -- I read a LOT) that Microsoft has had a patch out for this for several months & the ones infected either haven't d/loaded the patch or have pirated software & can't d/load it. So, if you leave your house doors unlocked, and someone robs you b/c it's easy pickings. . . . .

I have a Mac. ;-)

@lydia1959 & mimi_boo, Check that you have installed http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-067.mspx which was issued last year.

@minnie_tx, no you do not have to stay off the Internet on April 1. That is the date that CA located in the code that the infected machines will attempt to generate 50,000 URLs daily to download an additional component with new instructions.

The problem is that it is not known what will happen. From Security Focus http://www.scmagazineus.com/Is-Conficker-overhyped/article/129599/

"In the best case, Conficker may be used as a sustained and profitable platform for massive Internet fraud and theft," wrote Phillip Porras, Hassen Saidi and Vinod Yegneswaran, all of SRI International. "In the worst case, Conficker could be turned into a powerful offensive weapon for performing concerted information warfare attacks that could disrupt, not just countries, but the Internet itself."

ravencajun and zep516 have referred a lot of people to me from here for help with serious infections -- quite a number of them who use P2P software and their computers were without updated antivirus software, Microsoft updates or even a software firewall. It is people without those basic protections in place that are in jeopardy of being a target.

It was suggested this morning on a news program that we all just not turn our computers on April 1st - but one science guy said it's only an estimated date and the virus could hit on the 2nd, the 3rd, the 7th -- so I don't think that's going to fix it.
As always be careful of opening any oddball attachments.
Suzan J

one wonders if April 1st being April Fools' day as anything to do with it?

No, you do not need to turn off your computer on April 1. If your computer is not now infected, merely take the precautions needed to ensure it is not a target of this or any worm.

Turn off file sharing, disable autorun, have a software firewall and updated antivirus software. Don't open unexpected attachments, etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: Conficker Information for the Home Computer User