Conficker removal tool launched

Security firm BitDefender has launched a tool that will help you remove the Conficker worm from an infected PC.

Conficker, also known as Downadup, was estimated to have infected nearly nine million PCs within days of it first hitting the internet back in January.

BitDefender's free tool to remove the worm is available to anyone and not just customers of the Romanian security firm.

The company also said that it had seen a new variant of the worm this week. It was more aggressive and more resistent to disinfection techniques, it said.

"BitDefender Labs has been seeing an increase in worms, like Downadup, that have a built-in mathematical algorithm, generating strings based on the current date," said Vlad Valceanu, BitDefender’s senior malware analyst.

"The worms then produce a fixed number of domain names on a daily basis and check them for updates. This makes it easy for malware writers and cybercriminals to upgrade a worm or give it a new payload, since they only have to register one of the domains and then upload the files," he continued.