An expected mutation of the giant Conficker virus, which has infected millions of computers worldwide and even those in Government agencies, passed overnight without any trouble.
The virus, whose origin has not yet been located, is designed to imbed itself into computers and communicate with other infected machines over internet networks.
Computer analysts warned that yesterday the virus was instructed by its makers to start communicating with sites at a much faster rate.
The virus, also known as the “downandup” worm, spreads by communicating with internet sites where users unknowingly download it on to their system. The mutation increased the number of sites the virus infected.
The mutation of the virus made several computer analysts nervous, as the worm has not yet been given any instructions from its makers. Analysts feared that the increased speed at which the virus spread would also finally reveal the worm’s true intention.
But the April Fool’s day mutation passed without incident. Toralv Dirro, security strategist at McAfee Avert Labs in Germany, told Pcworld.com that the worm has not caused any new damage.
“We have observed that Conficker is reaching out, but so far none of the servers they are trying to reach are serving any new malware or any new commands,” he said.
“It would be pretty stupid for the guys running Conficker to use the first possible opportunity, when everybody is very excited about it and looking at it very carefully. If something was going to happen, it would probably happen in a couple of days.”
The virus infects computers by taking advantage of a gap in Microsoft’s security programs. A new patch has been released by the company, but individuals and businesses must continue to make sure their computers are kept up-to-date with anti-virus and Conficker detection tools.
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Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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