Save your PC from the Conficker Worm

Last evening, on CBS 60 Minutes there was a story about a worm called Conficker that has many computers infected in the world. The unusual part about this worm is that right now it does not do anything to your PC, yet....

What it does is check in periodically with whomever it's masters are to see if there are instructions for it to execute. So far the only thing the experts seem to know is that April 1 is a key date. However, they don't know what exactly is planned.

However, what these guys are good at is stealing your passwords, login information and accessing your bank accounts to transfer money.

Here is the link to the story: CBS 60 Minutes

I don't mean to be an alarmist, and I don't have any advice. However this is what I am going to do. I am updating my virus and internet security on March 31st. Then I'm turning off my PC and will not turn it back on until April 2nd, and even then I am going to immediately get my updates from Norton for Virus and Internet Security. (The Windows Secret Magazine article listed below says that the worm is to check for instructions on April 1 and could continue for weeks after, so my strategy is now to keep my Norton Internet Security up to date, it does this automatically).

Hopefully, this will be much ado about nothing, but in either case, I'm keeping my PC off that day.

At least watch the video.

Here are a couple of sites with more details: http://windowssecrets.com/

According to Symantec Corp, if you are running Internet Security 2009 or Norton 360 2009, you are protected. If not, there are free trial versions available at this Symantec link: http://www.symantec.com/norton/theme.jsp?themeid=conficker_worm&inid=us_ghp_link_conficker_worm