Conficker set to be damp squib

**Glaswegian** · 04-01-2009, 01:25 PM

The activation of the Conficker.c worm at midnight has passed without incident, despite some sensationalised fears that the Internet itself might be affected. However, security researchers warned that there could still be some danger.

"These guys have no designs, I think, on taking down the infrastructure, because that would separate them from their victims," said Paul Ferguson, a threat researcher at anti-virus vendor Trend Micro, calling the technology and design of Conficker.c as "pretty much state of the art."

"They want to keep the infrastructure up and in place to make it much harder for good guys to counter and mitigate what they've orchestrated," he said.

Conficker.c was programmed to establish a link from infected host computers with command-and-control servers at midnight GMT today. To reach these control servers, Conficker.c generates a list of 50,000 domain names and then selects 500 domain names to contact. That process has started, researchers said.

Exactly how many computers are infected with Conficker.c is not yet known, but the estimated number of systems infected by all variants of the Conficker worm exceeds 10 million, making this one of the largest botnets ever seen.

While infected computers have started reaching out to command servers as expected, nothing untoward has happened.

"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," said Toralv Dirro, a security strategist at McAfee Avert Labs, in Germany.

This may just mean the people who control Conficker are biding their time, waiting for researchers and IT managers to relax their guard and assume the worst is over.

"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," Dirro said. "If something was going to happen, it would probably happen in a couple of days."

http://www.techworld.com/security/ne...&NewsID=113667

04-01-2009, 01:25 PM	#1 (permalink)
Glaswegian Moderator/ Rangemaster TSF Academy; Analyst, Security Team; Oor Wullie; TSF Surgeon and Resident Comic Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Glasgow Posts: 25,427 OS: Win XP Pro SP3 / Win 7 Pro My System Blog Entries: 10	Conficker set to be damp squib The activation of the Conficker.c worm at midnight has passed without incident, despite some sensationalised fears that the Internet itself might be affected. However, security researchers warned that there could still be some danger. "These guys have no designs, I think, on taking down the infrastructure, because that would separate them from their victims," said Paul Ferguson, a threat researcher at anti-virus vendor Trend Micro, calling the technology and design of Conficker.c as "pretty much state of the art." "They want to keep the infrastructure up and in place to make it much harder for good guys to counter and mitigate what they've orchestrated," he said. Conficker.c was programmed to establish a link from infected host computers with command-and-control servers at midnight GMT today. To reach these control servers, Conficker.c generates a list of 50,000 domain names and then selects 500 domain names to contact. That process has started, researchers said. Exactly how many computers are infected with Conficker.c is not yet known, but the estimated number of systems infected by all variants of the Conficker worm exceeds 10 million, making this one of the largest botnets ever seen. While infected computers have started reaching out to command servers as expected, nothing untoward has happened. "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," said Toralv Dirro, a security strategist at McAfee Avert Labs, in Germany. This may just mean the people who control Conficker are biding their time, waiting for researchers and IT managers to relax their guard and assume the worst is over. "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," Dirro said. "If something was going to happen, it would probably happen in a couple of days." http://www.techworld.com/security/ne...&NewsID=113667 __________________ Iain - Defender of the Haggis and all things Scottish. I don't help by PM - post in the Forums. PC Safety & Security::PC running a bit slow?::Donate::Photographers Corner