This Excellent and extremely comprehensive (you’ve been warned!) article is from this Month’s The Atlantic, and explains the story behind 2008′s Conficker computer Worm, the most sophisticated instance of computer malware in the history of, well… ever.
The article also explains the differences between a computer virus, a trojan, and a worm. Beware, this article is a bit scary, as the Conficker story is actually far from over. Chances are pretty good, if you’re reading this from a Windows XP computer, that you actually have and are running this worm, and don’t even know it!
If you feel your computer might be infected, or if it’s been a while since our last visit, contact us today to get something onto the calendar! A Stress-Free Digital Lifestyle is hard to achieve when you’re fighting computer viruses and spyware for space on the computer, and we’re here to help out.
Enjoy!
When the Conficker computer “worm” was unleashed on the world in November 2008, cyber-security experts didn’t know what to make of it. It infiltrated millions of computers around the globe. It constantly checks in with its unknown creators. It uses an encryption code so sophisticated that only a very few people could have deployed it. For the first time ever, the cyber-security elites of the world have joined forces in a high-tech game of cops and robbers, trying to find Conficker’s creators and defeat them. The cops are failing. And now the worm lies there, waiting …
By Mark Bowden
The first surprising thing about the worm that landed in Philip Porras’s digital petri dish 18 months ago was how fast it grew.
He first spotted it on Thursday, November 20, 2008. Computer-security experts around the world who didn’t take notice of it that first day soon did. Porras is part of a loose community of high-level geeks who guard computer systems and monitor the health of the Internet by maintaining “honeypots,” unprotected computers irresistible to “malware,” or malicious software. A honeypot is either a real computer or a virtual one within a larger computer designed to snare malware. There are also “honeynets,” which are networks of honeypots. A worm is a cunningly efficient little packet of data in computer code, designed to slip inside a computer and set up shop without attracting attention, and to do what this one was so good at: replicate itself.
