Conficker – One Year After (Part Two)
EPISODE TWO
Have we defeated it yet?
We did not, although Microsoft offered a $250,000 bounty to catch the people behind the worm. Simply by looking at the quarterly evolution of Conficker infections chart, we can definitely say that it is not going to happen very soon.
Top 10 most infected countries in Q1 2009
|
Thailand |
8.35 % |
|
China |
8.20 % |
|
India |
7.85 % |
|
Malaysia |
7.56 % |
|
Vietnam |
6.70 % |
|
Indonesia |
6.03 % |
|
Philippines |
4.53 % |
|
Australia |
2.94 % |
|
France |
2.42 % |
|
Italy |
2.17 % |
|
Other countries |
43.26 % |
Top 10 most infected countries in Q2 2009
|
China |
14.59 % |
|
Vietnam |
9.44 % |
|
Romania |
7.48 % |
|
India |
6.72 % |
|
Indonesia |
5.78 % |
|
Malaysia |
5.66 % |
|
Thailand |
5.57 % |
|
Australia |
3.49 % |
|
Philippines |
2.74 % |
|
Mexico |
2.58 % |
|
Other countries |
35.94 % |
Top 10 most infected countries in Q3 2009
|
China |
12.76 % |
|
India |
8.00 % |
|
Vietnam |
7.41 % |
|
Thailand |
6.65 % |
|
Romania |
6.13 % |
|
Malaysia |
5.45 % |
|
Indonesia |
4.88 % |
|
Australia |
3.98 % |
|
Mexico |
2.72 % |
|
Colombia |
2.71 % |
|
Other countries |
39.32 % |
Top 10 most infected countries between Q1 and Q3 2009
|
China |
12.96 % |
|
Romania |
8.02 % |
|
Vietnam |
7.75 % |
|
India |
7.48 % |
|
Thailand |
6.30 % |
|
Malaysia |
5.64 % |
|
Indonesia |
5.05 % |
|
Australia |
3.63 % |
|
Philippines |
2.91 % |
|
Mexico |
2.49 % |
|
Other countries |
37.76 % |
The evolution of Conficker infections reveals at least three alarming aspects, both for security community and computer/Internet users:
Malware creators do not sleep nor do they take vacation. The ingeniosity and skillfulness used to create the five breeds of Conficker are the strongest evidence that malware authors are always innovative when it comes to profit.
The high rate of infections also tells that the level of awareness is still low among users. Not only when it comes to (constantly) update an OS with the latest fixes against security flaws, but even in terms of (good sense) removable media scanning against malware (even if it comes from a trusted sources).
Last but not least, it also shows that many users do not know that removal tools are available and they could employ them to disinfect their systems (until is not too late).
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