Question of the Week: Makeup Topic

[The Question of the Week is due on Friday, 5/8/2009 by 5:00 PM, if you need to make up some points. It should be at least 250 words in length. Include two research links that lend support to your answer. ]

Question courtesy of Leighton:

Background: Conficker is a computer worm focused on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is suspected to be the largest computer worm infection since the SQL Slammer that was launched in 2003. What makes this worm so hard to conteract is that it uses advanced techniques to infect your computer causing top antivirus software companies to put over $250,000 on the heads of the person or persons responsible for the worm. The worm was released in 2008 and on April 1st of this year it was thought to launch, but as of today it is still sitting in millions of computers worldwide mutating and becoming harder to stop.

Question(s): Is your computer infected by Conficker? How would you find out if it has been infected? How can you protect your computer from getting the Conficker worm? What could be the reprocussion if the worm were turned on today?