Just a week after the April Fools Day hysteria surrounding Conficker.C, most have forgotten and gone on. Security researchers, however, have not, and have noted more activity and a possible connection to the spambot Waledac.

The Resurrection Of Conficker
Yesterday, researchers at both TrendMicro and Symantec noticed new activity from a Conficker variant they've now labeled Conficker.E. The new variant spreads via peer-to-peer to update machines infected by earlier variants.

The activity they are witnessing also seem fairly benign. Conficker connects to major websites like MySpace, MSN, eBay, CNN, and AOL to get a simple time update.

Whereas the .C variant made burrowed its way into several areas of a computer to disable security communications and removal tools, the .E variant includes a previously unseen self-removal functionality to erase all traces of its presence from the infected host.

Strangely, it will do so on May 3, 2009, giving us yet another date to pay attention to. TrendMicro traced the worm to sources somewhere in Korea, and noted a possible connection to Waledac, one of the world's most active spambots.

Launched in mid-January, JustAskGemalto.com has registered more than 800,000 hits. The site aims to answer consumer questions on how consumers can keep personal information safe and has also had 500 questions asked on various security topics.


The site features questions and answers by category - traveling, communicating, surfing, personal data, buying and working.

The site also has a monthly focus topic, digital security news and articles by bloggers and experts, as well as 3D animations showing how devices, such as Wi-Fi routers, work. 



The most frequently viewed questions are related to the loss of one’s mobile phone. Another favorite centers around the security of social networking sites, blogs and e-commerce.

The past few weeks have been a flurry of activity for me and everyone at Arbor. We’ve been very involved in the Conficker Working Group efforts and notifying lots of people using ATLAS. Even after that Herculean effort and the great “fizzle” (thank goodness!), there’s lots to do. Blogging has not been at the top of my priority list, however.

Outside of the Conficker mess we’ve been busy in the community watching some DDoS events unfold. Information has been sporadically making it out there; it turns out that Twitter is a great source for DDoS reports once you can separate the legit reports from the cruft. This article, DDoS Attacks on Web Hosts Continue from Data center Knowledge, assembles many of the high profile attacks that folks are talking about. We have data on some of these attacks but not all, and we’re actively looking for C&Cs in all cases. What’s interesting is the major services they’re hitting. There’s no apparent gain here, but definitely some widespread impact.

Two bills introduced giving the President the power to deem a private network part of the nation's critical infrastructure and shut it down for cybersecurity reasons also gives the Commerce Secretary the power to access network data outside of oversight. The Big Brother vibe coming off both is reminiscent of a demanding report submitted before Obama even took office.

Cybersecurity Bill Empowers About a month after Election Day, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) issued a report called Securing Cyberspace for the 44th President. Heard of the military-industrial complex? The CSIS is likely where they meet to carpool.

The recommendations in the report, ignored by the previous administration, are sweeping and demanding. The principle minds behind it hailed from the CIA, the US Navy, Microsoft, Sun, AT&T, ICANN, Lockheed Martin, Cisco, and GE-among a slew of others-and likely those minds felt confident they'd get a more sympathetic ear from the new President. And they were likely right. They'd get that from Congress, too.

Two bills introduced giving the President the power to deem a private network part of the nation's critical infrastructure and shut it down for cybersecurity reasons also gives the Commerce Secretary the power to access network data outside of oversight. The Big Brother vibe coming off both is reminiscent of a demanding report submitted before Obama even took office.

About a month after Election Day, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) issued a report called Securing Cyberspace for the 44th President. Heard of the military-industrial complex? The CSIS is likely where they meet to carpool.

The recommendations in the report, ignored by the previous administration, are sweeping and demanding. The principle minds behind it hailed from the CIA, the US Navy, Microsoft, Sun, AT&T, ICANN, Lockheed Martin, Cisco, and GE-among a slew of others-and likely those minds felt confident they'd get a more sympathetic ear from the new President. And they were likely right. They'd get that from Congress, too.