Conficker worm begins attacking PCs

The Conficker virus, a malicious software program that first appeared last November, has finally become active.

The computer worm was expected to carry on disruptive activities on April 1. However, the threat was dismissed as a "false alarm" later, security experts was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The Conficker worm, also known as Downadup or Kido, which started spreading to millions of computers last year, appears to be turning its infected hosts into servers for e-mail spam.

By exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft's Windows operating system, the worm can infect users' computers and spread to other computers across a network automatically, without human interaction.

Vincent Weafer, vice president with Symantec Security Response, said Conficker is now installing a second virus named Waledac that sends out e-mail spam without the computer owner's knowledge.

It also carries a third virus that warns users that their PCs are infected, only to offer a fake anti-virus program called Spyware Protect 2009 for $49.95, according to Russian-based security researcher Kaspersky Lab. If someone buys it, their credit card information is stolen and the virus wreaks more havoc on the computer.

"Expect this to be long-term, slowly changing," he said of the worm. "It's not going to be fast, aggressive," Weafer said.

The worm is said to have infected millions of computers worldwide.

(Agencies)