SAN FRANCISCO — Even if it’s not an April Fools’ joke, the latest moves by the dreaded Conficker worm are by no means an Internet Armageddon, either.
The worm’s alarming outbreak entered a new phase today as clocks around the world ticked into the first day of April, the day it was scheduled to change programming.
But security experts appeared correct in their predictions that the day was likely to come and go without any major disruptions, even though the worm has infected anywhere from 3 million to 12 million PCs running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system.
Computer infections now are all about making money by stealing people’s personal information. And Conficker’s authors stand to make more money from renting out parts of their huge “botnet” to spammers or identity thieves than by destroying parts of the Internet.
“These guys have been pretty smart until now — the worm is unfortunately very well done,” said Patrik Runald, chief security adviser for F-Secure Corp.
But panic over the worm had reached a frenzy.
Lori Lynn Pavlovich, a mother of four from Racine, Wis., unplugged her PC and vowed to stay offline for a week after seeing a TV news report.
“I get scared real easy when it comes to stuff like that,” she said.
Pavlovich, who says she keeps her antivirus software and security patches up to date, got back online 24 hours later after a relative assured her that her system was safe.
What to do
Detecting a Conficker worm infection is very easy. One of the telltale signs is if you’re able to navigate the Internet freely but can’t access Microsoft’s site or the sites for the major anti virus software vendors.
Security experts recommend people with infected machines find a friend whose machine isn’t infected and have that person download the removal tool and e-mail it to them.
