Conficker worm dabbling with mischief
The Conficker worm's creators are evidently toying with ways to put the pervasive computer virus to work firing off spam or spreading rogue anti-virus applications called "scareware."
An April update sent to a tiny percentage of infected computers had the machines retrieve components of notorious Storm and Waledac worms unleashed in past years to create armies of "botnets" -- automated crime networks -- for spreading spam or scareware. "It looks like these guys are perhaps testing the waters to see which one of those would be a better money-maker for them," Trend Micro advanced threats researcher Paul Ferguson said Monday of Conficker's masters.
"We have always suspected that the people behind this would not sit idly by without trying to make money off this somehow. Spamming and rogue anti-virus are pretty lucrative for these guys."
