A great article on Atlantic Magazine tells the story of Conficker and the battle against it – a losing battle, to be exact. The writer has a flare for the dramatic, mind you, but that doesn’t change the fact that the best computer security researchers are still baffled by Conficker.

“You know you’re dealing with someone who not only knows how botnets work, but who understands how the security community works,” Andre’ DiMino told me. “This is not just a bunch of organized criminals that, say, commission someone to write a botnet for them. They know the challenges that the security community faces internally, politically, and economically, and are exploiting them as well.”

As of today, Conficker has a very big botnet. No one knows for sure how many computer are infected, because Conficker now utilizes peer-to-peer communications, so it no longer needs to check in with an outside command center, which is how security experts kept count. The rough estimate is that 6.5 million computers are infected.

Conficker Removal Tools

If you are using Windows XP – there’s a chance you might be infected with Conficker – even if you are protected by a firewall and an anti-virus. There are quite a few Conficker removal tools out there – here are some of them:

• Sophos Conficker removal tool
• Conficker removal tool by Enigma
• Conficker removal tool by BitDefender

It seems that Windows 7 is a bit too new to gamble on, when it comes to huge systems and networks. Vista is, of course, out of the question – which leaves us with the good old, steady XP.

Only a few of the computers had glitches and problems. The most dramatic incident was when one of the workers in the Olympics jumped up to cheer, and spilled soup on her laptop, which miraculously survived. Acer, the computer company that delivered all those machines to the Winter Olympics, said they offered to replace the laptop, but the worker decided to stick with it.

It looks like XP is going to survive just a little bit longer, even though Microsoft is doing everything they can to kill it. XP is a very compelling operating system -  it’s stable, easy to configure and a lot of people are refusing to part with it until Windows 7 proves itself.

Not a word about Vista. It never really happened, you know. Just a bad dream.

Microsoft has issued Security Advisory (980088), which basically says that Internet Explorer, for those who use Windows XP or who have disabled Internet Explorer Protected Mode, allows access to files with an already known filename and location. In other words – hackers can browse your files vie IE.

Browser versions affected are: Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 4 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service 4; Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4; and Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, and Internet Explorer 8 on supported editions of Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows XP Service Pack 3, and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2. Protected Mode prevents exploitation of this vulnerability and is running by default for versions of Internet Explorer on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft continues to encourage customers to follow the “Protect Your Computer” guidance of enabling a firewall, applying all software updates and installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software. The company hasn’t issued a patch yet.

I have a better tip for you: USE FIREFOX.

Microsoft has announced it was looking into a problem concerning Windows 7 and laptops.

Windows 7 users have been complaining of battery issues for a while now. The OS seems to report a drained battery in the laptop – long before the battery is actually exhausted. Microsoft claimed that the problem was in the Windows 7 tool that decides when the battery needs to be recharges.

“We are investigating this issue in conjunction with our hardware partners, which appears to be related to system firmware (BIOS),” a Microsoft spokeswoman said today, “The warning received in Windows 7 uses firmware information to determine if battery replacement is needed.”

Some users believe that the problem isn’t a faulty report – they claim that Windows 7 actually ruined their laptop battery. Users that rolled back to Windows XP claimed that the batteries showed poorer performance. In other words, Windows 7 might eat your batteries.

Last year, reviewers of Windows 7 said the OS cut battery life by almost a third when compared to XP.

Windows 7 is gaining popularity.It now accounts for 1 in 10 computers accessing the Web, according to Net Applications. Still, it seems like there are a lot of people out there who aren’t ready for an upgrade.

In other words, like with most Microsoft products – don’t rush to upgrade. If you have a laptop or a netbook with XP on it, you might want to wait just a while longer before switching an OS or buying a new laptop with Windows 7 on it.