Microsoft puts a reward on the arrest of Conficker developer

Microsoft puts a reward on the arrest of Conficker developer

US based software giant Microsoft has announced that they are putting up a $250,000 reward for anyone who can provide enough information for the arrest of the person who created Conficker malware.

Conficker is currently one of the most widespread malware. It has already infected millions of computers worldwide and continues to damage.

Microsoft said that the monetary damage has been announced because the worm constitutes a “criminal attack”.

The company believes that the financial award could speed up the investigation that leads to the arrest of the developer of this malware.

Microsoft added that the award is valid in all the countries in the world.

Interestingly, the worm utilizes a flaw in the Windows OS which the company has already fixed several months ago.

Security industry expert Jose Nazario had this to say: “The worm seeks to update itself by using a long list of pseudo-randomly generated domain names to contact over HTTP and then grab new code. The algorithm for this domain name generation scheme has been cracked (by F-Secure and others) and has been used to pre-compute the names for pre-registration to prevent hostile parties from using this update feature. This has been facilitated – greatly facilitated – by ICANN, TLD operators, and various registrars working together with Microsoft and others to identify the names and grab the ones they need to. These records can then be pointed at sinkholes to discover Conficker-infected hosts checking in.”

Checkout: Microsoft Collaborates With Industry to Disrupt Conficker Worm