MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES REWARD FOR FINDING THE CULPRIT BEHIND THE DOWNADUP/CONFICKER VIRUS

Microsoft has announced a reward of $250,000 (£172,000) to find out who is behind the notorious Downadup/Conficker virus.Since it started circulating in October 2008 the Conficker worm has managed to infect millions of computers worldwide.
Do you remember the Sasser worm that created chaos in the year 2003? Microsoft then created its reward programme with $5m (£3.4m) in funding to help law enforcement agencies bring computer virus and worm authors to justice. In 2005 Microsoft paid out $250,000 (£171,000) to two individuals who helped identify the creator of the notorious Sasser worm. The author was arrested and sentenced by the German authorities.But the sheer pricing of this reward says about the danger about Conficker.

The software giant is offering the cash reward because it views the Conficker worm as a criminal attack.According to George Stathakopulos of Microsoft "the company was not prepared to sit back and let this kind of activity go unchecked.Our message is very clear - whoever wrote this caused significant pain to our customers and we are sending a message that we will do everything we can to help with your arrest," said Mr Stathakopulos.Arbor Networks said as many as 12 million computers could be affected globally by Conficker/Downadup since it began prowling the web looking for vulnerable machines to infect in October.

We at Technosquare have previously revealed about the waht and how of conficker virus which can be seen in this link http://technosquare.blogspot.com/2009/01/conficker-virus-threat-for-wndows-vista.html

Although Downadup is widespread its creators have yet to activate its payload to steal data or launch other attacks.It has caused costly headaches for network administrators dealing with users locked out of their accounts when the worm correctly guesses a password.While Microsoft says it does not know the intention of the worm's creator, it wants to ensure it does not wreak any more havoc.Keeping your antivirus software updated and frequent windows patching like KB958644 is the only option available as of now.

Microsoft has also partnered with security companies, domain name providers, academia, internet companies such as AOL and others on a co-ordinated global response to the worm. Also included is the US Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security."The best way to defeat potential botnets like Conficker/Downadup is by the security and Domain Name System communities working together," said Greg Rattray, chief internet security adviser at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).

But the real nail in the coffin is although rewards of over $250,000 were offered to find the culprits behind the Blaster, MyDoom and Sobig worms the perpetraitors are yet to be arrested!