News around the web says that Microsoft will pay anyone who finds the creators of Conficker virus. The amount...


The amount is a cool $250000.

The Conficker virus came to limelight in the month of October, 2008. It targets a known vulnerability under Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 Beta. Microsoft released a patch for it in the same month.

But the damage has already been done as the virus has spread like wildfire. Security firms around the world report that at least 10 million PCs have been affected. Security experts are even more worried about the possibility that the worm calls some 250 servers worldwide every 24 hours for instructions.

Even the French military has been affected. They had to ground several fighter planes until everything could be cleared.

It is highly recommended to disable the autorun feature for USB drives as it spreads through them by triggering autorun. Removal tools have been provided by Microsoft and security firms such as Symantec, Kaspersky and others. There is no patch available for Windows XP SP1 or earlier softwares (except Windows 2000 SP4) as they are not supported by Microsoft anymore.