In case you haven’t heard yet, millions of PCs around the globe are fast succumbing to a worm that experts have yet to completely dissect.

According to F-Secure, a security software company based in the US, around 9 million computers are already playing host to the dreaded malware called “Conficker.” Millions more are expected to be infected by it in the next few days.

Little information has been unearthed as to what the virus could do. What is conclusively known, though, is that it exploits networks and servers that have not installed the latest security patches issued for Windows RPC Server Service. The fact that many antivirus programs cannot detect it also exacerbates the problem.

Conficker, which also goes by the name “Downadup,” spreads rapidly as it immediately copies itself into systems and storage devices. It’s very difficult to detect as it uses different extension names.

While security software makers appear to have been caught flatfooted, they are already laying out plans to curb the infection. Microsoft has recently announced that the latest update of its malware detection and removal tool would already be able to identify and eliminate Conficker.

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