Special offer

Wanted Dead Or Alive - Bounty Hunting On The Internet Frontier

By
Real Estate Agent with Gayle Harvey Real Estate, Inc.

In a scene out of the Wild Wild West, Microsoft has offered a $250,000 bounty for information on the controllers of the Conflicker worm.  This very real danger to the World Wide Web has caused the top virus hunters in the world to form an official posse to try to catch these cyber outlaws.  According to an article in the technology section of USA Todaycowboy,  Conflicker has infected between 1 million to 10 million pcs including the German military and the British and French airforces.

Once a pc has been infected the Conflicker worm prevents the infected pc from being cleaned up.  The worm then spreads to any shared hard drives.  In addition it also copies itself to any device that can be plugged into a usb port such as da igital camera.  Consequently that device spreads the virus to the next device that it is plugged into.  Then comes the part that sounds totally science fiction.  At least once a day the infected machine tries to connect with 250 domains, each of which is a control server.  "In effect the controllers can at anytime, deploy parts, or all, of a massive botnet, to do their bidding."

USA Today did not say anything about the ability of our antivirus software to protect our computers from this threat.  So as Sargent Esterhouse on Hill Street Blues used to say, "Be careful out there" as you go about your business on the mean streets of the internet.

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Contact Pam Dent, e-PRO, SRES, NHD, REALTOR®, Real Estate III, Charlottesville, Virginia at   434 960-0161  , pam@JumpintoGreenerPastures.com, to list your property for sale or to buy a property in the following areas in Central Virginia: Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Keswick, Glenmore, Ivy, Crozet, Earlysville, Free Union, Cismont, Scottsville, Fluvanna County, Troy, Palmyra, Lake Monticello, Louisa County, Louisa, Mineral, Spring Creek, Orange County, Gordonsville, Orange, Barboursville, Greene County, Ruckersville.

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Visit my website  Jump into Greener Pastures or read my other blog Charlottesville Horse Farms and Country Homes for more information about Charlottesville homes, horse farms, events and real estate.

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Comments (9)

Alan May
Jameson Sotheby's International Realty - Evanston, IL
Home is where the hearth is.

all I can say is 'wow'!

Feb 20, 2009 12:31 AM
Michael Setunsky
Woodbridge, VA
Your Commercial Real Estate Link to Northern VA

Pam, I don't know if I got this virus on my Lap Top, but it has infected every Windows exe file. I have been working on it for the last three days to clean it up with no result. I am going to reformat it this afternoon and start all over again.

Feb 20, 2009 12:39 AM
Chip Jefferson
Gibbs Realty and Auction Company - Columbia, SC

Michael I hope its not this worm as if it is budget for a new PC. Great way to caution downloads. These people should be locked in jail for 50 years! Hopefully the 250K will get them caught!

Feb 20, 2009 12:43 AM
Kathy McGraw
CELLing Realty - White Water, CA
Riverside County CA Real Estate

Pam- I just clicked the make this a feature :)  Thanks for the heads....these kind of people that think this is fun, really tick me off.

Feb 20, 2009 06:44 AM
Rebecca Levinson, Real Estate Marketing and Online Advertising Consultant
Real Skillz-Clear Marketing for Your Real Estate Vision - Lake Geneva, WI

Crazy stuff.  Imagine if the creativity could be put to "good use". 

Feb 20, 2009 07:23 AM
Karen Kruschka
RE/MAX Executives - Woodbridge, VA
- "My Experience Isn't Expensive - It's PRICELESS"

Pam  The folks operate this worm sound more like weasels to me,  Karen

Feb 22, 2009 09:32 AM
Bill Gassett
RE/MAX Executive Realty - Hopkinton, MA
Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate

Yikes that one sounds real crazy Pam. This is the 1st I have heard of it!

Feb 22, 2009 11:54 PM
Pam Dent
Gayle Harvey Real Estate, Inc. - Charlottesville, VA
REALTOR® - Charlottesville Virginia Homes / Horse

Alan - Love your avatar.

Michael - Do you lose info when you reformat?

Laura - That doesn't seem like nearly enough of a reward considering the damage that has been done.

Kathy - Thanks.  I don't relate at all to the type of person who invents these viruses.  Just think what these people could do if they directed their intelligence toward womething positive.  What a waste.

Rebecca - I agree entirely.

Karen - They are scum.  I hope they get caught.

Bill - I have not heard anything about whether they have been caught or not.  Would love to hear some follow up to this story.

Mar 22, 2009 01:46 PM
Lee & Pamela St. Peter
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices YSU Realty: (919) 645-2522 - Raleigh, NC
Making Connections to Success in Real Estate

Hi Pam, have just heard about this worm and wasn't able to access my Norton,  Had to do an uninstall and am now running a scan...  geez.  I hope someone wants that $250K bounty Microsoft is offering and squashes these folks.

Mar 31, 2009 01:38 PM