In order to spread, it tries to guess the passwords of other machines on the network. As recently as August, Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust in east London admitted it had just managed to contain an infection of 30 machines, probably caused by an infected USB stick.Īnd even though the Conficker worm does not destroy or steal information, it is far from harmless. So, how does the Conficker worm spread? Conficker has the ability to spread via USB sticks, as well as over a network. The cleanup costs across the world have been enormous. In one incident, a number of French military aircrafts had to be grounded as they were unable to download flight plans due to Conficker. In the early stages, the Conficker worm certainly caused a lot of trouble, infecting hospital systems, the U.K. So should we worry? Although the malware is very good at spreading and defending itself once installed, it doesn't destroy files or steal information – yet. Between 6 million and 7 million machines around the world are currently infected, and infections are still creeping up. Life went on, the Internet didn't collapse, and most people decided it was just another one of those scare stories (remember the Millennium Bug).īut as we approach the first anniversary of the initial Conficker virus- it was first detected by the Microsoft Malware Protection Center on Novem- the bad news is that a Conficker botnet is still very much alive. Then when the day came, nothing happened. Remember all the fuss about the Conficker worm earlier this year? The worm spread like crazy and everyone expected it to do something terrible on April Fools' Day. Part Two: How to stop Conficker: Anti-Conficker pactch managment, defense Part One: Conficker worm update: How does Conficker spread?

How does worm virus work