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By now, you have surely heard about the virus that’s due to attack computer users on April Fools Day. The virus known as the Conficker Worm is said to be one of the deadliest viruses to hit the internet in a long time.
The threat is so great that Microsoft is offering a $250,000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of the attacker.
There is very little that is known about the virus other than the fact that it is triggered by the date of April 1, which is April Fools Day. There is however a lot of speculation and conjecture going on around the internet regarding the Conficker Worm.
I’ve heard that if infected your computer might shoot out spam from your email address, I’ve heard that if infected it will install child pornography on your computer, I’ve heard so many different things it’s hard to separate fact from fiction.
One thing that I know for sure, if you want to protect yourself from this virus, make sure that your Microsoft Windows software is updated. If you have not updated in a while or if you have never updated, you can update your software here.
If you have virus software installed on your computer, make sure that’s updated as well. If you don’t have some form of virus protection software installed, I recommend, AVG and AVAST. Both are free to use and do a very good job of protecting your computer.
Once April Fools Day rolls around and you feel that you somehow were infected, or if you want to check to make sure that you are not infected, you can check by pointing your browser towards f-secure.com, secureworks.com, microsoft.com or other security sites.
If you get a "page cannot be displayed" error for all the sites, there's a good chance they are blocked by Conficker or similar malware on your PC.
To remove the worm or virus, you can do so by downloading one of the removal tools below:
I recommend updating your virus software and scanning your computer for worms and viruses on a consistent basis. There is always some type of new attack going on, it is best to protect your computer just in case.
Comments
Microsoft uses fear for you to launch Windows Update and be asked 100$ because your Windows is not genuine. I suppose the virus exists but won't be so huge.
This sounds like an April Fools joke.
There is an additional piece of security software that is very important that was not mentioned in your article. That is the anti-malware software. While I agree that both avast and avg are great options they alone do not provide a solution. In order to have a truly effective Virus, Worm, Trojan, Adware, Spyware, and all other Malware removal regiment you should be using Avg or Avast and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. This software is also free for non-commercial use. I tried to include a link for the download but was not allowed. So I will just say got to download.com and search for Malwarebytes.
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