More Than 20M Computers Infected by Conficker, and Counting

The highly encrypted worm called Conficker may secretly enter and run the PC became infected with more than 20 million computers for the last three years, according to Kaspersky Lab.

Auto-update the worm penetrates the heart of the computer's operating system and transfer control to the remote control, by Mark Bowden wrote the author of the worm: The First Digital World.

Recently, Conficker has caused the loss of £ 7.2 million production of SABMiller, the brewer of Peroni, Coors Light and Foster. SABMiller had to close its operations in Romania in April for several hours because the worm.

Reported in 2008, Conficker has sent security experts around the world rushed to try to stop the botnet. Conficker Working Group, a group of experts who offered that the reason the government was trying to get involved in their efforts, but noted that they have a lot of explaining to get the message that officials Conficker is capable of.

Even organizations that are responsible for protecting the country's power grid, telecommunications and did not have sufficient knowledge of Conficker.

Now Conficker has changed, which is commonly known today: the botnet. It 'became a powerful malicious software that can be taken to computer networks, which regulate banking, telephones, security systems, air traffic control, and even the Internet itself, according to Bowden's book.

Bowden provides an overview of how terrifying the scope of Conficker overwhelming capacity for infection. Botnet, according to him, could be used as a weapon, which is what shakes the state officials in their bones.

Consider the denial of service attacks Conficker launch on 10 million computers, the attack is not only a goal down, but the whole Internet world as well.

"This is equivalent to the closure of the commuter train system during the Civil War, when Union troops and Confederate troops trains used to transport arms and ammunition and supplies in their area of ​​control," said Bowden .

But it is not necessary in the digital age, you can do today, taking over the Internet, he added.

In addition, the Panel found that the designers were really Conficker Conficker after the creation of money, not mass destruction or dismantling the Internet.

From that moment, nobody knows exactly who controls Conficker, or what his intentions are, Bowden said.

He said Conficker is increasingly infecting the computers of large institutions, including the FBI, the Pentagon and large corporations.

Cyber ​​criminals can steal passwords from users via Conficker.

With a botnet of 25,000 computers, hackers can break the security codes for the accounts of people raid or Amazon.com or obtain Social Security numbers and data, Bowden warned.

"There is almost no commercial security system that could not be broken by a supercomputer with tens of thousands."

Global Research Kaspersky Lab and the team offered this analysis to be done to fight botnets, including Conficker: to allow researchers to carry out the remediation of soil through a botnet, to provide immunity laws cyber crime in a particular investigation, which can use system resources at risk during an investigation, and provide assurances to participate in the operation of remote control system when no other n is available.