April Fools’ computer worm surfaces

by admin April 1, 2009 at 2:48 pm

(CNN) — Experts watched warily Wednesday as a worm infecting millions of computers activated itself as predicted on April 1.

However fears the Conficker.c worm would cause chaos have so far proved unfounded, with no reports of major problems.

“As long as you’ve patched or at least brought your antivirus software up to speed, you should be fine,” said Chris Pirillo, a tech expert for CNN.com.

And there are plenty of anti-virus software packages available.

“I believe just about everybody out there,” Pirillo said, “has a removal tool.”

Still, the worm could cause problems, he said.

Unlike viruses, worms self propagate, spreading by networks. “Once it’s out there, it’s very difficult to stop,” Pirillo said.

He predicted that “the worst possible outcome” would be that some computers would run “suboptimally,” as network traffic becomes clogged.

Read more: cnn.com