What Happened With The Conficker Virus?

By Chris Wright, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- A computer virus called Conficker was supposed to wreak havoc on millions of computers on April 1st.  But, no problems have been reported.  So what happened?

Experts say Conficker still poses a threat, but so far, it's been nothing more than an elaborate April Fool's joke.

The professionals at Avansic, near 4^th and Boston, are self-described nerdy private investigators and they were busy dissecting sick computers on Wednesday.  But, none had reported any symptoms of Conficker.

"No, it's not been too bad. A lot of people are relating this to Y2K, saying there's a lot of hype and a lot of people worried," said Avansic President Gavin Manes.

All the recent Conficker hype has sent millions scrambling for updates on anti-virus websites.  Experts say the worm has infected as many as 10 million computers since January.

Gavin Manes says what makes this virus different is that no one has been able to figure out exactly what it's programmed to do.

"We knew what the problem was with Y2K and some of these others viruses. The fear here was that we didn't know what this virus was or what it could do," said Avansic President Gavin Manes.

The worm was supposed to receive its marching orders April 1st.  But, just like at Avansic, at Tulsa Computer in Jenks, it was all quiet on the Conficker front.

"I don't think the Conficker virus is any worse than any other virus out there.  It's just this one has gained a lot of media attention," said Tulsa Computer President Alan Day.

Alan Day has been paying close attention to Conficker, but says he wasn't entirely surprised when nothing happened Wednesday.

But, that doesn't mean the virus still can't cause problems down the road.          

"I don't think this virus is something to ignore.  I don't think we've seen the last of it," said Alan Day with Tulsa Computer.

"It was a worm, it did propagate. It may not have turned yet, it may be tomorrow that it hits. We just don't know," said Gavin Manes with Avansic.

Conficker is only a threat to PC's that run Windows.

If you're still worried about the virus, there is a Microsoft Security update.