Q&A on Conficker

My Quincy Adams BNI Chapter is lucky to have a very smart Computer Guy -> Dave Elmasian with FAST TEKS serving the South Shore of Boston.

Today he spoke about the Conficker virus, he emailed the following Q&A on the Conficker virus.

Thanks Dave!! for keeping an eye out and always helping out with a Computer crisis!

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If you don't know what the heck I am talking about - here is a link to general information on this virus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conficker

Q: What will happen on April 1, 2009?
A: Based on our collective technical analysis, we've determined that systems infected with the latest version of Conficker will begin to use a new algorithm to determine what domains to contact. We have
not identified any other actions scheduled to take place on April 1, 2009.

Q: Will an updated version of Conficker go out to already-infected systems on April 1?
A: It is possible that systems with the latest version of Conficker will be updated with a newer version of Conficker on April 1 by contacting domains on the new domain list. However, these systems could
be updated on any date before or after April 1 as well using the "peer- to-peer" updating channel in the latest version of Conficker.

Q: Should the general public be alarmed? Why or why not?
A: No, the general public should not be alarmed. Most home users have been protected by Microsoft Security Update MS08-067 being applied automatically.

Q: Are there any other changes in the latest version of Conficker?
A: The latest version of Conficker also introduces a new "peer-to-peer" (P2P) updating capability. This capability could enable a system infected by the latest version of Conficker to receive a new version or
new instructions by contacting another system infected by Conficker rather than by contacting a domain determined by the domain generation algorithm.

Q: We hear talk of an impending second phase of attacks from Conficker. What do you anticipate happening next?
A: There may be a second phase of the threat at some point in time. However, we believe that with a situation like this-which has similarly taken place many times in the past-and given the tremendous
amount of attention that this worm has received, as well as industry and law enforcement monitoring, these efforts will be a deterrent to a large second wave of attacks. At the end of the day, we can't
speculate on the intentions of criminals, but what we can do is work to limit the impact of any second phase.

Q: Why does Conficker continue to spread even though Microsoft issued the update in October?
A: There is always some percentage of customers who don't apply an update at any given time, due to a variety of reasons. While most home users have been protected by the patch being applied automatically, once the worm gets a foothold inside an enterprise, it's difficult to remove and this is where people are having problems.

Q: Why is Conficker using domain names? Is this a new trend?
A: It is trying to download malware from these domains and it also uploads infection counts to these domains, but this is not a new trend.

Q: What is the Conficker Working Group doing about this new algorithm?
A: The Conficker Working Group has been working continuously to block access to domains that systems infected by Conficker attempt to contact. We are continuing this work and have expanded this effort to include those domains that will be contacted by the latest version of Conficker starting on April 1, 2009.

Q: What should people who are worried about April 1 and Conficker do?
A: We recommend that home users who have not yet enabled automatic updates do so and ensure their security software is up to date with the latest signatures.

If you don't know what the heck I am talking about - here is a link to general information on this virus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conficker