Because the worm's instructions are encrypted, as of 7:20 p.m. PDT Wednesday night, researchers were still unable to determine the nature of the payload, according to Trend Micro education director David Perry.
Still , in this audio podcast, Perry had plenty of information about how the worm is finally passing on instructions to infected PCs.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
SANTA CLARA, Calif--It's early morning in California, and so far there are no reports of problems due to the much-anticipated Conficker worm. In Asia, where it's already evening, the worm hasn't done any noticeable damage, according to McAfee's Hong Kong-based security expert, Vu Nguyen.
I'm here at the headquarters of security company McAfee, where I spoke by phone with Nguyen and in person with McAfee spokesman (and former CNET News security reporter) Joris Evers.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
Millions of computers worldwide have already been infected with the Conficker worm.
So far, it hasn't done any major damage, but it is replicating itself. And on Wednesday, it's apparently programmed to "phone home," possibly getting instructions from some master computer to start causing real problems.
Most experts don't expect anything dramatic on Wednesday, but Windows users are being advised to make sure to apply the latest Microsoft security patch and to be sure they're using up-to-date antivirus software. In this podcast, I discuss the worm with David Perry, education director of Internet security company Trend Micro.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
- prev
- 1
- next
