Conficker Information - March 31, 2009
You may have encountered articles in the media
about a potentially very threatening computer virus/Trojan (the ‘Conficker’).
While no one is entirely certain what this virus will do, infection is
clearly widespread, and it is scheduled to go active on April 1, 2009.
The best protection for your computer is to make sure that all updates
(to the operating system and the anti-viral software) on your computer
are current. Anti-virus firms have been racing to release updates that
are effective against this frequently-revised virus.
The Department of Political Science strongly
encourages you to update your home computers and laptops with the most
current Microsoft Updates and the most current McAfee updates. If your
McAfee updates have not been done regularly run a full scan of your hard
drive. It is compulsory that all university-owned machines be at all
times current in their anti-virus and operating system updates (we set
this to occur automatically when we build the machines). Please do not
turn off this protection.
All department office computers and laboratory
computers are designed to run Microsoft and McAfee updates every
night. If you turn off your computer at night, those updates are not
current and you must contact the PRL staff today so they can
bring your computer up to date. Laptops are particularly vulnerable
since they are not regularly updated (unless left on and plugged in) and
need to be updated today. It is bad practice to turn your office
computer off at night; if you would like to conserve energy, they can be
easily set to power-down (the monitor and hard drive) without fully
shutting off, which virtually eliminates energy consumption but does
permit automatic updating.
You can also check your computer for the
infection. If you are unable to point a web browser to the following
websites, you have an infected computer. Please contact us immediately
if this is the case.
*http://www.symantec.com/norton/theme.jsp?themeid=conficker_worm&inid=us_ghp_link_conficker_worm
*
http://www.mcafee.com
If your home computer or laptop becomes infected
your files could very easily become a threat to the entire Political
Science Network. We encourage you to always keep all updates current.
Machines should have a McAfee definition file of at
least 5562. This can be checked by right clicking the little shield in
the taskbar and selecting “About VirusScan”. The number is listed under
“DAT version”. Running a full scan would detect and remove Conficker but
could take over an hour.
(http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_153464.htm)
Symantec’s Downadup (Conficker) removal tool:
http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2009-011316-0247-99
. This would detect and remove the virus if found. They recommend
disconnecting from the network/internet before running. This tool
appears to take approximately 25 minutes (on Dell 620).
Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool stand
alone download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD724AE0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displaylang=en.
This tool has detected Conficker since the January 2009 version. A new
version comes out every month and is run with Windows Updates. Only the
newest version is run if a machine has not been updated for months. A
quick scan takes about 5 minutes (on Dell 620).
|
