NO!Contrary to popular belief by the mass of non-security Internet citizens the Internet will not turn into Armageddon on April 1st, 2009. It's not going to turn into anarchy where zombie computers spew their venom through the billions of miles of cables that make up the Internet - that's just not going to happen. At least that's the belief of most of us in the security industry. Could it be a hoax? Sure. Could there be a large influx of newly infected PCs? Sure. Maybe the already infected PCs start doing something different like a DDOS attack or something else. Who knows, we don't...only the criminals behind the infections/attacks do.
I've heard from many of my non-technical friends and coworkers asking about this "new" worm that is set to "explode", as they put it, at midnight on April 1st. I've even seen people say to unplug their computers, like turning them off, from March 31st and then plug them back in on April 2nd. No really, that's what they are saying. Take a look at an email I received earlier today that's making the rounds of non-technical users:
Subject: unplug computer Mar 31, replug April 2Sigh.
Unplug your computers from the internet on March 31 and don't reconnect them until April 2. Then it won't have access to the web to "activate" the worm if you have it (that's how the article says this worm works). Hopefully by April 2 they will have a "fix" for it and you can get back on your machine.
While I appreciate all the awareness they are providing acting like this is some huge tital wave that will wash your home away is just ridiculous. If your Windows computer is fully patched, including this one from October, you have some sort of antivirus and firewall than you are safe from this worm.
No, the Internet is NOT going to explode tomorrow! See you online.
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