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Silent threat can 'take control of your computer at any time'

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Why you can trust SCMP

It seemed like a bad joke when security experts around the world began warning that a worm called Confickr had been spreading rapidly through the internet, and was set to activate itself on the first of April.

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When the deadline came and went many users concluded it was another hollow security warning that never materialised into a real threat, and they carried on as normal.

However, security industry insiders cautioned that the threat was still there, because rather than carry out a specific set of actions on your computer on April 1, it was instead told to await further instructions.

'The main threat with Confickr is that it allows the author of Confickr to take control of your PC at any time,' said Gerald Hong, director at Lapcom, a distributor of Kaspersky security software in Hong Kong.

'What it also does is disable antivirus software and several security features in the Windows operating system, making it harder to track down and eliminate. The authors are much smarter and we know they are experts on the operating system.'

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Among other notable features of Confickr is its ability to self propagate through the Web or via USB drives, advance payload propagation, avoiding detection through the use of advanced malware techniques and it is encrypted to stop the payload from being replaced.

Mr Hong warned that the reason that users hadn't felt the effects of the worm was because the aim of the virus writers had shifted from amateurish pranks that caused damage to more commercial pursuits.

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