Confliker Malware Infection: No Signs of Slowing Infection Rates

Confliker is also known by Symantec as Downadup or Kido, as well as many other names. Symantec is a manufacturer and distributor of anti-virus and other security software programs. Confliker is noted as one of the most prolific forms of malware on the Internet today. To date, it still infects at least one out of every ten PCs connected to the Internet every day. The Confliker virus is a form of malware, or "MALicious softWARE" that is programmed to cause harm to the PC and take over certain functions of the PC.

What is a Confliker Malware Infection?
These types of infections are programmed by people usually trying to gain control of personal and private information. These people, called hackers, usually want to gain control of the computer for other malicious purposes such as adding the PC to a botnet, or a chain of zombie computers. A Botnet or zombie computer is a computer controlled by a virus unbeknownst to the owner. These computers, in most cases, are used for distributing spam.

Confliker Malware Infection Facts
October of 2008 marked the occasion that the first infection occurred. This first infection ravaged over 10 million PCs within a few days using the vulnerabilities of the Windows Network stack, one of the most vulnerable areas of the Microsoft Windows OS. The main problem is the many variants of the virus, including Confliker A, B, C, D and others all have their own unique symptoms. Most of these symptoms are not detectable by the usual virus scanners at onset of the malware infection. It is not until the infection becomes more advanced that a virus scanner can see Confliker.

Confliker Symptoms Masked by Normal PC Use
Some symptoms cause overloaded traffic on the network therefore causing serious slowdown when browsing the Internet and downloading. Others cause the computer to stop downloading altogether, restrict the websites you are allowed to visit, restrict the use of the Task Manager and other System Tools and sometimes can even completely freeze or crash the PC. In any case, most people attribute these symptoms to other "natural causes" a PC may experience with normal use. By the time the Confliker variant is detected, the damage is usually catastrophic to the PC and a complete reformatting of the OS must be performed.

What is the Outlook on Safety?
There is currently not a single product to stop this malware infection from happening meaning there is no end to the infections in sight. While there are new anti-virus programs coming to the market that show promise and claim to put an end to the virus, or at least put a dent in the amount of new infections, considering the Confliker worm's past offenses, this is highly unlikely.

To stay safe, taking basic precautions at all times such as limiting JavaScript access, not opening email from unknown senders and installing an anti-virus program that can detect the Confliker infection and all of its variants. You may opt to choose an antivirus program that can detect rootkits as well. These anti-virus programs may be just enough protection to let you know if a Confliker malware infection has started to spread, even though it does not catch it at first onset. This would be better than having nothing if you do have any of the variants of the Confliker malware infection present on your PC.

Something to Think About
The worst thing about this malware infection that makes it so frightening is the ease at which it took down the Federal Republic of Germany's PC network. If Confliker has the ability to infiltrate a highly guarded and protected network such as Germany's, it is even easier for the malware to infiltrate and wreak havoc on any home or business computer as well, no matter how protected they think they are from infection.

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