Jan 26th, 2009 | 1 Comment

The computer worm responsible for the biggest attack in years has infected at least 1 out of every 16 PCs worldwide, a security company said Wednesday, and may have managed to compromise as many as nearly 1 in 3.

According to Panda Security, almost 6% of the Windows systems scanned with its antivirus technology were found to be infected with “Downadup,” a worm that began aggressive attacks just over a week ago. Panda was one of the first security firms to ring the alarm over Downadup, when it raised its security threat level Jan. 12 as reports of attacks mounted.

Using data from antivirus scans performed by its consumer-grade security software, and by a free online scanning tool it makes available on its Web site, Panda found 111,379 PCs infected with the worm out of a pool of 2 million machines.

Written by Ajay Matharu

January 26th, 2009 at 9:35 am

  • http://www.vtoolbox.com PhilB

    After downadup infects your computer, you can no longer download updates from Microsoft and most antivirus software vendors. One thing the virus does is block requests from you computer to these web sites. Alternative downloads can be found at http://www.downadup.com, along with tools for disabling AutoPlay, and repairing the registry.