Conficker worm on it's way

I was reading a story this morning from Yahoo about the Conficker worm that comes out every year on April 1st. The first Conficker worm was sent out in 2008 and infected over 9 million computers. Now it's on its third version, Conficker C, and is "incredibly complicated, powerful, and virulent".

Microsoft has offered a quarter million dollar bounty on the writer of the worm and are trying to find a solution before April 1st gets here. They say:

"What's known so far is that on April 1, all infected computers will come under the control of a master machine located somewhere across the web, at which point anything's possible. Will the zombie machines become denial of service attack pawns, steal personal information, wipe hard drives, or simply manifest more traditional malware pop-ups and extortion-like come-ons designed to sell you phony security software? No one knows.

Conficker is clever in the way it hides its tracks because it uses an enormous number of URLs to communicate with HQ. The first version of Conficker used just 250 addresses each day -- which security researchers and ICANN simply bought and/or disabled -- but Conficker C will up the ante to 50,000 addresses a day when it goes active, a number which simply can't be tracked and disabled by hand.

At this point, you should be extra vigilant about protecting your PC: Patch Windows completely through Windows Update and update your anti-malware software as well. Make sure your antivirus software is actually running too, as Conficker may have disabled it.

Microsoft also offers a free online safety scan here, which should be able to detect all Conficker versions."

And from the Windows Live OneCare website:

How do I know if my computer is infected?

System Changes

The following system changes may indicate the presence of this malware:

• The following services are disabled or fail to run:
Windows Update Service
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Windows Defender
Windows Error Reporting Services

• Some accounts may be locked out due to the following registry modification, which may flood the network with connections:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
"TcpNumConnections" = "0x00FFFFFE"

• Users may not be able to connect to websites or online services that contain the following strings:
virus
spyware
malware
rootkit
defender
microsoft
symantec
norton
mcafee
trendmicro
sophos
panda
etrust
networkassociates
computerassociates
f-secure
kaspersky
jotti
f-prot
nod32
eset
grisoft
drweb
centralcommand
ahnlab
esafe
avast
avira
quickheal
comodo
clamav
ewido
fortinet
gdata
hacksoft
hauri
ikarus
k7computing
norman
pctools
prevx
rising
securecomputing
sunbelt
emsisoft
arcabit
cpsecure
spamhaus
castlecops
threatexpert
wilderssecurity
windowsupdate

So I thought, well, I'm safe, I have McAfee...I have Spyzooka...I automatically update and have my firewall and Windows Defender set up to run automatically...I'm good right?

Then I looked in my system tray and NOTHING WAS THERE! Windows Defender had been turned off; McAfee off; Spyzooka off. Ack! I immediately stopped what I was doing and ran every kind of scan I have. I found several viruses.

I'm glad I came across the story and checked into my own PC. I hope y'all check yours too. This could be bad, bad, bad.

Maybe it's the food they eat...

I was surprised this morning when I came across a story about a second Florida student being disciplined for having gas. I'd even say I was a little shocked. Ok, it's completely unbelievable to me! It's a bodily function people! Get a grip!!

Just in case you missed it, I'll remind you of the first student.

Back on November 4, 2008, a 13 year old Spectrum Junior-Senior High School student was ARRESTED for passing gas in school. Arrested. Isn't that crazy?

Authorities said he was passing gas and that he also turned off his classmates' computers. A report from the Martin County Sheriff's Office said the boy "continually disrupted his classroom environment" by intentionally breaking wind. He was charged with disruption of school function and released to his mother. I guess I can see a boy thinking that was funny but to arrest him? No way.

Then this morning I saw the newest flatulence offender...

A 15 year old eighth grader from Lakeland Florida.

The bus driver said the boy was passing gas on the bus Monday to make the other children laugh. He also said that the boy created "a stench so bad that it was difficult to breathe." That's some bad gas now. And I can judge gas since I live with several gas passers (My husband and my cats are all offenders...). It's got to be some mighty powerful stuff to make it difficult to breathe.

The boy was suspended from riding the school bus for three days even though he said he wasn't the one passing gas. The bus driver didn't even give the boy the suspension notice until the next day. I don't get that part. Why not address the matter immediately? Why wait until the next day?

I have a couple major problems with this second incident all jokes aside. First, why not open the windows? Do school bus windows not open anymore? I can remember it being over 100 degrees outside and we'd have every window on the bus open. And the driver has a small window by them too. Why couldn't he open that and give himself some fresh air? I just think that's a pretty petty thing to complain about. Have you ever been in the store and walked down an aisle that someone just passed gas on? Maybe we should confront them and tell them they can't come in the store for three days because they passed gas.

The second thing is the fact that because he had gas (IF he is the guilty one), he now has to find alternate means to get to school. I personally rode the school bus every day of my high school career. I rode it on the first day of school and I rode it on the LAST day of school. My parents worked. We weren't allowed to drive. We definitely weren't allowed to ride in anyone else's car (even though we snuck a few times). The bus was our only choice. If I had been kicked off the bus for any amount of time I would have caused a huge issue. (Not to mention I would have gotten my butt whipped pretty darn good.)

So needless to say, I think it's ridiculous that these students got in trouble for gas. There are so many bad things happening in the world and we're going to arrest a teenager for farting. That makes sense.