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Do this now to fight Conficker computer virus

March 31st, 2009 at 09:39am Georgette Braun

NBC News says to do this now to try to figure out if all heck might break loose with your computer on April Fools’ Day tomorrow:

Try typing in the URL of a virus-fighting company (i.e., www.mcafee.com, or www.symantec.com). If it works, you’re probably up to date with your anti-virus software, and you don’t have the conficker worm. If not, conficker is likely blocking your computer from fighting back, and it’s time to install some new armor.

Virus fighters in the Silicon Valley estimate that some twenty million PCs are already infected with the conficker worm. And things may soon get worse. Conficker, which digs into your computer (Macs, we’re told, are safe) and treats it like a “zombie” (sending out spam to lots of other computers), is apparently waiting until April 1 to get its next set of “instructions” from whoever created it in the first place.