Windows Virus Infects 9 Million

Windows Virus Infects 9 Million

Techtree News Staff, Jan 20, 2009 1842 hrs IST

The malicious program includes a code or other malware that could damage both, the system and the network.

Being slated by experts as one of the worst malware outbreaks of the past five years, a nasty worm called "Downadup" aka "Conficker" and "Kido" has affected over 9 million Windows users worldwide, says F-Secure, an internet security solutions provider.

The number of infected machines rose from 2.4 million to over 8.9 million in just four days, according to F-Secure calculations.

The malicious program includes a code or other malware that could damage both, the system and the network. The program uses computer or network resources to make complete copies of itself.

The principal targets are corporate Windows servers belonging to small businesses who have not installed security updates released by Microsoft last October.

F-Secure issued an alert about the new versions of the "Downadup" worm earlier this month. The alert informed victims that the worm infects Windows workstations and servers, causing various problems.

According to F-Secure's estimates, a third of all potentially vulnerable systems have not had the update. Since New Year, F-Secure has been receiving several reports of corporate networks getting infected with variants of this worm.

If you're a victim of this worm, you could visit F-Secure's Malware Information page for more information for its removal from your computer system.