A Price On His Head - Anti-virus by stickystebee

The computer worm that has stormed the internet and infected many millions of computers has upset Microsoft so much that they are offering a reward of $250,000 for the head of its creator. The worm is variously known as Conflicker, Kido Downup and Downadup. It works by exploiting vulnerability in Microsoft's operating systems. The worm has a number of variants and is continually evolving. If it gets onto your system it will do many nasty things including opening a door to a load of additional malware which will steal your personal data and take over your computer.

It is no wonder that Microsoft is alarmed. This worm threatens lives. It has infected computer systems in schools, military forces and hospitals.

So who are the hackers who create these viruses and worms? Perhaps they are evil villains holding the world to ransom, maybe they are terrorists, then again perhaps they are just computer geeks who have just got a bit carried away, sort of the misunderstood innocent folk hero version. Whoever they are, cybercrime is the fastest growing crime of all and has cost industry, commerce and the public purse billions of dollars.

The nature of cybercrime has evolved considerably since the first computer virus Conflicker was launched on ARPANET. At first it was primarily simple delinquent activity, naughty but not malicious. The motivations were mainly fame, glory and peer group admiration. Some nasty worms were released, denial of service attacks were carried out on organisations such as Microsoft, and a graffiti and slogans were pasted on websites but little real harm was done. Nowadays it has become serious, and as we have said huge sums of money and even peoples lives are involved.

Cybercrime threatens you. Your security, finances and even your identity can be stolen by nothing more than a few pages of computer code that has, without your knowledge, downloaded itself onto your computer. Do yourself a favour. Make sure that your antivirus software is up to date and scan your system. Do it now, before it is too late.