Well I know I'm a few days behind on this but the Conflicker is most definitily not a hoax. Reports show that the virus has activated and the infected clients are starting to attack others. If you are interested in this topic at all, I'm sure you already read this somewhere else - no use in me just repeating old news.
What I would like to talk about is some of the interesting technical things about this virus. First of all how it spreads its a little unique. Most virus programs spread in either email 'Click here for your free e-card!' or through a flaw in a web browser, or even a flaw in Windows. What's unique about this virus it uses a security flaw in Windows to infect USB drives. This to me just sounds really clever. A lot of people may not use virus protection or run updates on old computers that don't get on the Internet. Computer users think because the machine is not connected to the Interner that they are safe. Well now if you plug in a USB drive from an infected machine - you aren't.
Let's talk about what the virus actually does once it infects you.
Deletes and system restore points you may have made. Geez how heartless can you be?
Next it connects to its home base and downloads a update.
Now the virus installed a small web server on the infected machine and then gives that info to other infected machines.
So now the infected computer can spread the virus without the home base being involved.
Why this is a big deal?
Anytime you have a virus attack like this its a big deal because so many infected computers are now working together. They could all be used at once to perform a denial of service attack on a site. What else Well, anything really. Since the virus can update itself we don't know what its capable of or what the true intentions are.
Why it's not a big deal
There's a cure and a removal tool! Also if your systems were patched on time you are already protected. Read more here.
