April Fool's arrives: Conficker still quiet... for now

April 1st has arrived for the whole world now, which means the dreaded Conficker.C -- perhaps the most technologically sophisticated malware attack ever designed -- is no longer dormant and is now actively looking for instructions on the internet.

That's the bad news. The good news: Those instructions either haven't been delivered by the worm's creators or (far less likely) Conficker has been thwarted by the attempts to raise awareness about the attack and stop it in its tracks, scaring off the creators.

As discussed widely in the media (and in a server-melting blog post here), Conficker was scheduled to go live on April 1 (local time), which meant it would no longer sit dormant on your computer but would rather begin polling the web for its instructions.

And as I mentioned as a possibility yesterday, those instructions have not yet been delivered despite the arrival of D-Day, so while Conficker is indeed "phoning home," no one is answering the call.

Yet.

Vigilance is key for now, as those instructions could be delivered at any time. Given the panic many people are experiencing over the arrival of April 1 (thank you for all the emails...), if I were a malware writer, I'd wait until tomorrow -- or later -- before launching the real attack, after guards had been let down a bit and people thought the coast was clear. That's not the case.

I'll reiterate that, despite the fact that it hasn't yet gone haywire, I don't believe Conficker is a hoax. This is an extremely sophisticated piece of programming that is indeed looking for instructions from its creator on what to do next and is simply idling in the meantime. Just because those instructions haven't been given does not mean you're safe from attack.

Don't panic, but keep your antivirus running and update, and make sure Windows is patched. My prior post has additional information on keeping yourself protected, whether Conficker finally goes live later today or a year from now.