So April 1st hit and the Internet is still there.  But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re not infected with the conficker worm.  In fact, April 1st proved that if you are infected with conficker, you could be in trouble.  On the 1st, the worm phoned home to update itself.  Sure, that’s not bad in itself, but the update showed that the worm is difficult to stop and incredibly versatile.

Luckily, the Conficker Working Group has an easy way to see if you’re infected or not.  How?  Do you see three logos below?  One for F-Secure, one for SecureWorks, and one for Trend Micro?

If you do, you’re in good shape.  If some or all of the logos are missing then you’re likely in trouble.

How does this test work?  Well, Conficker is designed to block internet access to the websites of anti-virus companies like F-Secure, SecureWorks and Trend Micro, so if you’re infected these logos, which are linked to the AV company’s website, will be blocked.  If you’re not infected you’ll see the logos like usual.

In any case, Conficker is turning out to be pretty scary.  The worm is able to access thousands of infected computers worldwide and turn them into…well…whatever the worm authors want.  Not only that, but Conficker is sneaky.  It’s designed to disable anti-virus software and it will only accept secure connections from its creators.

Although nothing has happened to far, Conficker can be used to wreak havoc at the whim of its creators.  Most likely the Conficker creators will sell use of the Conficker network to hackers for things like denial service attacks.

All indications are the worst is yet to come.

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