Thread: $300,000 reward for worm

Conficker worm still baffles experts

By John Shovelan for AM

Posted 6 hours 21 minutes ago
Updated 5 hours 49 minutes ago
More than 5 million computers worldwide have been infected by the worm (AFP: Ammro Maraghi)


Almost a year after it was first detected, the Conficker computer virus is still baffling security experts who say it poses the largest threat of cyber crime.
They admit they are no closer to finding a cure or who is behind it, and Microsoft continues to offer a $300,000 reward for anyone who can help.
More than 5 million computers worldwide have been infected by the worm since it was discovered late last year.
Rodney Joffe, the director of US communications company Neustar, says the virus is nearly impossible to remove from infected computers.
He said the virus creates cryptographic links between infected computers which are controlled by an equally malicious and distant server.
"We've not been able to crack that, and in fact it's using the very latest cryptographic techniques, something called MD6, which is something that we don't expect to be able to crack for many years," Mr Joffe said.
He says the people behind the virus can do whatever they like once the computer has been infected, but adds that the latest anti-virus software should prevent your computer from being infected.
"We'd been hoping this was perhaps an experiment that had got out of hand. It's now clear to us that it's a whole lot more than that," he said.
With the virus infecting public school systems in the US, councils in the UK and the French navy, Mr Joffe says they are losing the battle against the zombie virus.
"The people behind this are as smart as we are, if not smarter," Mr Jofee said.
"Each time we've actually taken steps to defend ourselves, they've modified the way they operate and they're now at a point where they're using something called peer to peer."
He said infected computers are slowly migrating to the later version of the virus which is much more difficult to interrupt.