'WORMY' COMPUTERS AT RISK
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 -- 11:55 AM
April Fool?s Day could have some extra frustrating implications as a widespread computer ?worm? is set to evolve.It?s known as ?Conflicker.? Computer security experts have known about it for a quite awhile, but they say it?s been programmed to change tomorrow, becoming harder to exterminate.
Ron Sievers is a network engineer at Priority Business Systems in Marshfield. He?s been scrambling today to make sure all his clients are protected.
It?s complicated, but a ?worm? is a program that replicates itself across a network.
Experts aren?t sure how damaging the worm will be. Sievers thinks it will probably start popping up unwanted ads on your computer.
But, infected computers could be susceptible to hacking.
"The biggest thing is, it could open up a backdoor. If connects to the people that made it, it gives them a backdoor to do anything they want," he explains.
That means personal information and passwords could be at risk.
Sievers says there?s an easy way to check to see if your computer is infected.
"The easiest way I've seen is, if you open up Internet Explorer and you open up Google, you type in (and search for) "AVG," if you have Conflicker, the window will just close," Sieverys says.
Now, if you?ve kept up-to-date with your Windows updates, you should be fine.
"The biggest thing is make sure you have all the Windows updates. They came up with a patch for this quite awhile ago," he says.
Microsoft has placed a bounty of 250,000 dollars on the heads of those responsible for the threat.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.