Microsoft released a forth quarter security report stating that the worm Conficker is still infecting 1.7 million computers and work stations. This news comes more than three years after the worm was first detected. The rate of infection has increased despite widespread availability of tools to fight it.
Conficker has many different versions which make it hard to fight on large scale networks. Although Microsoft had patches out way before a lot of companies were not patched. Conficker can also turn off Automatic updates and BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service). Despite Microsoft’s security patches and updates for Windows XP and Vista companies and end-users are still vulnerable due to Conficker’s ability to self-update by automatically connecting to hundreds of attacker-controlled domains.
Microsoft recommends two things
1. Adopting Better AV (Anti-Virus Solutions) and Malware Protection
2. Strong and Better passwords