Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Advice to Stay Safe from the Conficker Worm A.K.A ( Downadup Worm)

Run a good security suite (we are partial to Norton Internet Security 2009 and Norton 360 Version 3.0).

Keep your computer updated with the latest patches. If you don’t know how to do this, have someone help you set your system to update itself.

Don’t use “free” security scans that pop up on many web sites. All too often these are fake, using scare tactics to try to get you to purchase their “full” service. In many cases these are actually infecting you while they run. There is reason to believe that the creators of the Conficker worm are associated with some of these fake security products.

Turn off the “autorun” feature that will automatically run programs found on memory sticks and other USB devices.


Be smart with your passwords. This includes Change your passwords periodically


Use complex passwords – no simple names or words, use special characters and numbers


Using a separate, longer password for each site that has sensitive personal information or access to your bank accounts or credit cards.

If you have a computer that is infected, you will need to use an uninfected computer to download a specialized Conficker removal tool from. The tool is available here.

1 comment:

coffee maker said...

the Conficker worm seems to have failed to live up to it's apocalyptic reputation, but that's obviously a good thing

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