Security group releases new Conficker figures

A US-based not-for-profit internet security group has released figures that show just how infected Australians are with the Conficker worm.

Released last month by security group Shadowserver, the figures show infected Internet Protocol addresses and how infected individual internet service providers’ (ISP) users are.

The nation’s largest telco Telstra had the most infected users, with a total of 3,718 IP addresses infected with various variants of the worm.

In second place was Optus, with 2,230, followed by TPG with 1,147 infected users.

A complete list of infected ISPs can be found on the Shadowserver web site.

Conflicker was first detected in November 2008. The worm spreads to computers through a flaw in Microsoft’s operating system.

It’s spreading so much so that Microsoft is offering a US$250,000 (AUD$278,000) reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those behind its creation and distribution.

Shadowserver works with the Conficker Working Group formed by Microsoft to combat the effects of the worm.

“As recently as late October 2009, the number of systems infected with the A+B+C variants topped seven million,” wrote co founder and director, Andre' M. DiMino.

"We thought it would be of interest to illustrate the depth and extent of how Conficker truly affects a worldwide scope of providers."

Previously, the security group had publicly released figures to show how infected the world was with the Conficker worm.