Conficker ‘fading from view’

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The Conficker worm was not so prevalent in January, marking a significant change in the threat landscape, a security firm has claimed.

Conficker, also known as Win32.Worm.Downadup.Gen, dropped from first to third in BitDefender’s global top 10 threats report.

The infamous worm did not even make it into the top 10 threats in the UK.

“It seems that a combination of migration away from the Windows XP OS and better awareness amongst users means it is no longer as widespread as it once was,” said Catalin Cosoi, head of the BitDefender Online Threats Lab.

“Conficker has been one the most high-profile threats of recent years, with many variants. The damage it can cause varies from exploiting weak passwords to blocking access to security vendor websites.”

Although Conficker has faded away somewhat, it appears the gap has been at least partially filled by newcomer Trojan.Crack.I.

This emerging threat collects data about other applications on an infected system, whilst leaving a backdoor to allow for remote access.

A recent report from the Conficker Working Group, a consortium including key members of the security community including Microsoft and Trend Micro, indicated taking on the worm was particularly difficult.

According to the report, seven million government, business and home computers in more than 200 countries were under the control of Conficker.

Rodney Joffe, director of the Conficker Working Group, said the organisation’s collaboration had succeeded yet the worm was still a prevalent threat.

“It is also a clear example of how this "best of breed" cooperation is generally powerless to stop determined attacks - Conficker remains undefeated, and no arrests have yet been made,” Joffe said.

“The operation was a complete success; unfortunately the patient died”.

Microsoft's recent Patch Tuesday included a change in Autorun for both XP and Vista. The alteration can prevent USB drives from automatically loading files and applications - something that has helped Conficker spread in the past.

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