Hello people,

Yonko here. With all the buzz around holidays and the upcoming April Fools’ Day, this seems like a very good time to punch a few lines about this Conficker menace virus and how to protect yourself from it. If you haven’t heard about Conficker then you should educate yourself. Conficker is one of the worst viruses to date. It spreads by exploiting unpatched computers. It comes in three known variants – Conficker.A, Conficker.B, Conficker.C. Each version of Conficker features a “new and improved” set of tools to make your dream-come-true vacation in the Caribbean a nightmare. As an example, version C has the ability to disseminate itself through thumb drives (a.k.a. flash drives, a.k.a. where’s my can-never-find-it-thingamagic).

Now, I can write all day about how Conficker can spread and infect, but what I really want to tell you about is How To Protect Yourself From it. Right now there are two options: you either have Conficker on you machine, effectively turning it into a drone, or you don’t… and you are a happy camper.

One way to find out is to attempt to run a Windows Update by going to Start, All Programs and then Windows Update. Find and install all available updates and you “should” be okay. As with any anti-virus vs. virus battle it’s all a matter of catching up to one another.

So, make sure your computers are up-to-date and Conficker would be just another funny name on the news reel for you.

Now, if you do have it, you would probably know it immediately. Windows update would probably not run. And your access to well-known and respected anti-virus websites like AVG, Symantec, McAfee,Kaspersky etc would be restricted or blocked. Microsoft has released a special patch to address this vulnerability in its, otherwise solid as a 10-foot steel blast door, Windows operating system. You can find it here and make sure you select the right operating system at the bottom of the page, then download the file and install it.

In the event that you have it, call for help. Even I cannot tell you the extent of damage this thing can cause.

To Protect Yourself and Your Computer from Conficker or any other modern virus keep your anti-virus software updated, same goes for your computer.

I use ZoneAlarm as my antivirus/antispyware but it might be too much for you. My recommendation is AVG as it is less likely to stump you with questions you don’t know the answer to.

Have fun and stay safe. You know how to find me