PaulSpoerry.com

April Fool’s Day passed with much angst over and little action from the Conficker worm, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a threat or that you don’t have it. Joe Stewart from SecureWorks has put together an “eye chart” that sources its graphics from sites that Conficker would block. Click here to view the chart. If you can’t see one or more of the images, you’re either infected or image loading in your browser has been disabled. It’s a test based on the fact that Conficker blocks legitimate security Web sites. The logos are sourced remotely so if they can’t load, then the sites are also likely to be blocked.

OpenDNS is a wicked service (and FREE) to use anyway. All my personal PC’s use it. OpenDNS can also speed up your surfing by allowing keyboard shortcuts from any system, work as a parental filter, and prevent you from seeing so many of those “no such site, but here’s a whole bunch of ads!” parking pages. It’s free to use and set up; here’s a detailed guide for home networks.

So how does it help with Conficker? The latest variant of Conficker is now blazing through over 50,000 domains per day in an attempt to thwart blocking attempts. But check this out,  at any given time OpenDNS has filters that hold well over 1,000,000 domains!!! Combine that with their phishing and domain tagging filters and basically 50,000 domains a day isn’t going to put a dent in OpenDNS. So basically even if you HAVE Conficker… OpenDNS will more than likely stop the worm from even being able to contact the site that would tell it what to do. OpenDNS prevents the worms from even contacting its botnet overlords to receive instructions on what to do.

Check out the OpenDNS blog for more about April 1st and Conficker, when you’re done reading that head on over and configure your home network to use OpenDNS, not just to protect you from Conficker but for all the added bonuses it brings as well.