I've been reading alot about the conficker virus or DownAdUp to be activated today, and so far nothing. Some are saying it might be a hoax, and others a serious virus that can steel credit card info, etc. What do you think?

I find it hard to beleive that all of the effort put into this virus would be just "for fun", or a hoax.

I was wondering the same thing. I actually had a more sinister thought....

There hasn't been a major virus scare in a while, maybe the virus software companies weren't feeling so secure.

April Fools!! haha, we will see... I don't know how this April 1st talk actually became common knowledge or how they figured this would be the day stuff goes down.
For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conficker

Check out http://live.twit.tv around 8pm CST for a podcast on the worm.

- Conspiracy Theory #276 -

The virus protection companies have been pumping out viruses for years to keep their software relevant. Ever wonder why there hasn't been large scale virus attacks on any other OS than Windows? Coincidence? Maybe.. maybe not.

Oh well, I really think this is another april fools joke! I heard about this virus yesterday, but I haven't heard anyone being infected by this yet.

Originally Posted by Rad_Dev

- Conspiracy Theory #276 -

The virus protection companies have been pumping out viruses for years to keep their software relevant. Ever wonder why there hasn't been large scale virus attacks on any other OS than Windows? Coincidence? Maybe.. maybe not.

Ever notice Windows has 90% of the market? Mac has 5%. The goal of any business is to make money. It only makes sense to make your software for Windows. Considering there are about 18x the amount of users on windows there is a bare minimum of 18x the amount of viruses, which it is probably more realistically 10,000x amount of viruses.

I've heard about this theory and anti-virus companies don't need to waste their time with such things. There are many people voluntarily do it themselves.

Nothing happened and I doubt anything will happen, the company that makes Norton 360 (Really bad program) has been advertising like hell posting on news websites, having interviews on BBC radio... I think they've just been pushing this thing so that their profits increase during the recession.

Originally Posted by NewBreed

Ever notice Windows has 90% of the market? Mac has 5%. The goal of any business is to make money. It only makes sense to make your software for Windows.

I understand the makers of the anti-virus software make their products for the mass population but... do the hackers that develop the viruses/worms really care about market share?! Maybe Windows is just sooo vulnerable that the hackers just can't be bothered with the others.

but... do the hackers that develop the viruses/worms really care about market share

Absolutely they do.

Say you are making a virus to promote some spyware garbage. Lets say there is 100 people you can immediately expose to it via a website. Going with the number of 90% that someone threw out there, that would mean 90 of these people have windows, 10 have other OS, and a pretty good chance that not all 10 that are not windows have the same OS.

You would design yours for the two or three people using and odd operating system? Doesn't seem like the most economical choice for your time and the risk.

Also, users with other operating systems are probably much more computer literate than the average internet noob and would be able to tell something is up and not ever be exposed to the virus in the first place.

It wasn't a hoax... everyone who had it's computers have blown up. That's why they aren't around to tell us how bad it affected them.

@John - Agreed. Thanks for pushing my point. BTW the 90% came from:
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp
If anyone was interested.

@Generator - LOL! I love your theory!

This worm is real. look wikipedia for details.

The people who made Norton 360 (Rubbish program) have been having interviews on every radio station saying how bad it was and on so many news websites having there comments posted... Good way to scare people into buying your products.

I believe the worst is yet to come as far as viruii are concerned. Any of you remember back in the day early 1980's when the 'script kiddies' were able to code ms-dos viruii that could literally destroy your hard drive? Just imagine what kind of havoc that would cause now. Especially with the amount of files being downloaded and or created (programmers as an example)

It turn out to be a very big April fool of computer times. There are so many huips on this virus, and there are so many stories about its developments. conflicker a,b,c and so on. But nothing happened worldwide.

i wouldn't take the risk.
make sure you've got the latest virus definitions and also that you're up to date on microsoft security patches.

sounds like an april fools joke to me