How can I protect myself against conficker?

For good reason there has been a lot of users have recently concerned about a Conficker virus and it's potential activation on April fools day. There have been a lot of requests with users wanting to know how to protect themselves so I've created this post as a general document on how to make sure you're protected.

See if you're able to access other security sites

Visit this helpful chart to see if you can load images from major security vendors websites blocked by Conficker when infected. (Thanks Evilfantasy for this link (also mentioned below).

http://www.columbia.edu/~joel/eyechart/cfeyechart.html

Make sure your anti-virus is up-to-date

By far the most important thing is to have an up-to-date virus scanner on your computer. If your anti-virus scanner does not automatically update your computer at least every day make sure to manually update it.

Additional information about updating virus scanners at:
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000533.htm

If you do not have an antivirus program installed on your computer we suggest AVG.

Make sure your Windows is up-to-date

Make sure your version of Microsoft Windows is up-to-date with all the latest updates including all the latest service packs.

Windows XP should be running at least Service Pack 3.
Windows Vista should be running at least Service Pack 1

Additional information about updating Windows:
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000545.htm

Get a malware protection program on the computer and scan it

Having one or more good malware (spyware) protection program on your computer in addition to a antivirus is always a good idea. We suggest having Malwarebytes.

One virus scanner

Unlike a malware or spyware protection program you should only have one anti-virus program installed on your computer. Having more than one anti-virus on your computer does not make it safer it actually can make it unsafe. If you have more than one anti-virus program installed consider keeping one and uninstalling every other one.

Make sure your Internet software is updated

Programs you use with your browser such as Flash, Adobe Acrobat, Java, etc. are also very vulnerable if not updated. Make sure you're running the latest version of each of these programs. You can quickly and easily determine what you're running by visiting the Computer Hope System information tool.

System can also be scanned with Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) that can also be used to scan all files on your computer.

Consider using an alternative browser

Many attacks are still directed at Internet Explorer users. We highly recommend and suggest users consider using an alternative browser such as Firefox.

Install an Internet security service

There are a few Internet security services that can help you by warning you when visiting any unsafe web page. We recommend getting WOT.


Other forum members are welcome to tune in on this thread with their own suggestions. If you're currently infected with this virus please start a new thread.

If you haven't updated since November, and you get Conficker, it will be lot harder than what most people believe.


The Malicious Software Remover tool won't work unless it was updated after November.
AV scanners wont work...^^^

And you can't get updates because Conficker blocks access to update.microsoft.com and AV scanner webpages.


EDIT: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx has a lot of usefull information on protecting yourself.

And Microsoft is offering a $250 000 reward for the arrest of the Conficker creator.

[Malware Removal Specialist]

And Microsoft is offering a $250 000 reward for the arrest of the Conficker creator.

Link: Microsoft offers $250,000 reward for Conficker arrest and conviction.

If you think you are infected by Conficker a quick way to tell is by visiting http://www.microsoft.com/worldwide. If you can't get to the MS homepage then you might be infected with Conficker. There are also other virus that block the page so it isn't guaranteed that is what the problem is. But either way you need to get whatever has invaded your PC off of it ASAP.

Yeah...because if something is stopping you from going to microsoft.com, something is seriously wrong in your computer.

I think it's kind of funny how people see all these sites suddenly stop working, weird behaviour, and then just pawn it off as the computer "being old"... 

[Malware Removal Specialist]

This is really cool and I must give credit to Osc at Help2Go.com for posting it.

It is a graphical test linking to security sites. If you can't see their logo then you could be infected by Conficker.

Conficker Eye Chart

This is really cool and I must give credit to Osc at Help2Go.com for posting it.

It is a graphical test linking to security sites. If you can't see their logo then you could be infected by Conficker.

Conficker Eye Chart

That's really cool. I'm definatly not infected, as all the images are visible and I can go to AVG.com...


Also, a possible solution to get to AV websites, go through a proxy first.

Agreed great find Evilfantasy!

It mentions on the page that you can get to AV websites by using a proxy.

[Web moderator]

I think this should be stickied for the next few days.

I think this should be stickied for the next few days.

Very well. Figured since it's not being spammed all over the media that most users will not be as concerned as they were before April 1st.

[Malware Removal Specialist]

From my forum hopping there are still many users, who by the way are techs, who don't believe it is even a real virus. I had to link one guy to news reports and he was still skeptical!

See if you're infected here.....

http://iv.cs.uni-bonn.de/fileadmin/user_upload/werner/cfdetector/

I had it.
My computer became so bogged down by it that I was afraid it would stop working.
I immediately copied all my files off onto another computer and reinstalled windows.

I had it.
My computer became so bogged down by it that I was afraid it would stop working.
I immediately copied all my files off onto another computer and reinstalled windows.

Did you bring conficker with you??? You could do an I Am Legend thing where you study the conficker virus in infected files while in a virtual PC...