Conficker Worm Still Threatens 1 in 10 Windows Computers

It has been over a year since the potentially devastating computer worm Conficker was said to cause serious issues for millions of computers but even today, 1 in 10 Windows PCs have still not been patched of the vulnerabilities that may allow Conficker to affect the system.

A security risk and compliance management company called Qualys, recently found out that about 10% of hundreds of thousands of Windows computers monitored by them still have not applied the security update that removes the vulnerability for Conficker. The update (MS08-067) has been available through Microsoft for over a year allowing millions of computers to take action to avoid being the next victim of the Conficker Worm.

What is Conficker Worm Doing Nowadays?

The Conficker worm, or its botnet, is not dead. On April 1st of this year, U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials were preparing a new report on how the world still struggles to keep this serious parasite under control. Still, Conficker "resolution groups" or security experts are still attempting to keep the worm from updating its botnet which may wreak havoc once again.

Conficker, or Downadup, gained the most media attention of any other modern computer parasite causing near mass panic. April 1st, 2009 was even marked as a date that Conficker would unleash its payload on millions of computers around the world. The final outcome was nothing as bad as it was hyped up to be by the media. Conficker still remains to be a threat especially to those systems that have not been properly patched, about 1 out of 10 Windows PCs.

The Conficker worm was still successful in leaving around 7 million computers with a nasty botnet infection and several security companies, including us, still offer options to rid these systems of the Conficker parasite. The reason for still offering a solution to Conficker worm is mainly due finding out that many systems still are vulnerable to Conficker. That is rather evident in the case of the security management company Qualys' findings.

Is your computer infected with Conficker? Do you know of any systems that have not been patched and may have the Conficker worm infection?