Stormvisions - Confiker Worm Check

Conficker Worm Check

This is a simple check based on another site I saw. That site was actually hard to access because of all the traffic so I decided to create one here. If you can see all six images below, then your system probably does not have the conficker worm.

The conficker and other viruses often block antivirus / security patch websites as part of their invasion which would likely prevent these images from loading. You should not use this as your main or only means of verification.

One	Two	Three

Four	Five	Six

Resources

Here are some useful resources. In some cases you may need to use an uninfected computer to download removal tools listed below if the sites are blocked by the worm.

Microsoft Malware Protection Center
Symantec Removal Tool
Windows Live Safety Scan
Five Free Tools to Eliminate Confiker
ESET Free Virus Removal Tools
NEW! Microsoft Security Essentials - Good, solid and free; basic av from MS. If you've got a good anti-virus there is no need to change. This offering from MS lacks some of the advanced bells and whistles but it has good detection rates and a small footprint compared to most of the av suites. Now you have no reason to have an unprotected machine. Leave on the windows firewall, UAC (if you have Vista or newer), Microsoft Security essentials, and FireFox with NoScript and use some common sense and you have a decent wall of protection.

You should also have the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool installed. You verify by clicking Start and in the Run box type mrt.exe. Make sure you have the latest version, if not use the link above to get it. It takes a while to scan the system but has been updated to find Confiker and many other worms.

Learn More, Be Careful, Be Safe

You may not always be able to avoid viruses but you can avoid 99.9% of them! You heard right. If you update regularly, use common sense and practice safe computing you can avoid almost every virus infection. The sites below provide tools or information that I find useful.

Twit.TV - several excellent shows also available as podcasts. The Tech Guy with Leo Laporte features tech help from geeks but for everyone (includes related security questions). Security Now with Steve Gibson is a technical discussion of security issues and even though I don't understand everything it is incredibly fascinating.
GRC.com - This is Steve Gibson's site and a node on the security expressway. There is some information, online and offline tools and newsgroups with security discussion.
Sysinternals - several really useful free tools here including Process Explorer, AutoRuns, Process Monitor, PsTools, PageDefrag and RootkitRevealer which allow you to control and spy on programs and processes or enhance system performance.

If you like FireFox I would also recommend you get the NoScript plugin.

Three often recommended Antivirus products include Avast, Nod32 and AVG.