How Serious is this?

[Milli]

   I am wondering how serious this April Fools Day Conficker C Internet worm is and if there is any way to know if it is somewhere in your computer? 

[flopnfly]

Our IT department told us to be very careful on what we are opening.

I'm not sure how you can detect it??

[bmnichol]

Make sure your virus protection has been updated and any Microsoft updates are installed. Other than that ??

[Jammyisme]

Listen , you should always be prepared for the worse case scenario. As in, what would the consequences be if you lost everything on your hard drive?  If they are severe , back them up now. IMHO, I personally think keeping anything critical on one's C drive is silly. This could be a false alarm,(a great April Fools joke    ) and yet it could be for real. Somewhere on the microsoft site there is a detection and removal tool. Im looking for it now.   

[JohnnyCastaway]

this virus has been around for a little while now, what's new is the fact that researchers have discovered that it will be receiving new instructions on April 1st.   If you're running windows XP, make sure you have service pack 3 installed, and your antivirus subscription current and up to date.  If you're running any windows 2003 servers then make sure you have service pack 2 installed.  If you're running windows Vista, make sure you have service pack 1 and all subsquent updates installed via windows update (all critical and recommended updates).

if you're running any windows previous to XP then make sure that you have ALL of the updates installed, and your antivirus is up to date and scanning real time.  The usual precautions still hold true, do not open any unsolicited attachments, if in doubt verify that the person actually sent you something.  if you're opening attachments, best practice is to SAVE it down to your C drive first (i.e. to My Documents) and then open it, that way the antivirus software has a chance to scan it before it's actually launched.  It will not stop everything but it has a better chance of catching something, as just running it from the attachment only allows the virus scanner milliseconds  try and figure out if it's good or bad, and by the time it stops something bad, the damage is already done.

Also remember, NO company will ever send you a file to "patch" your system via email.  Most will send you a link, and usually after a discussion with tech support.  Never will they send you anything unsolicited so don't open any "updates" recvieved via email. 

[Jammyisme]

    well said.

We compliment each other.   

[Milli]

    So far so good or how would we know!

[Jammyisme]

try and go to mcafee.com. Thats a good sign .