As the seconds ticked down, people from across the country rushed to do some last-minute updating of their anti-virus. Egging on their computers to work faster, users performed full scans of their hard drives and registry. Consumers flocked to Microsoft’s update site to get the latest patches, hoping to get them downloaded and installed before time ran out. In homes and offices everywhere, eyes jolted from one side of the monitor to another, looking for more files to back up. In this scurry of confusion, nobody really took the time to read up on the cold, hard facts. According to calculations done using information acquired 24 hours after Conficker.C was scheduled to strike, the chance that you had the virus was less than one-tenth of a percent.

I know. What a waste of time.

On April 1st, I was shocked for two reasons. One, because of the large number of people who contacted me asking how they could find out if they had the virus, and how to remove it, even though this information was easily obtainable using Google; and two, because of the large number of people entirely oblivious to Conficker.C all together. The following is for the ignorant.

The media began mass-broadcasting one day that on April Fool’s Day of 2009, the largest, most destructive virus would rise to lay waste to computers everywhere. Months beforehand, this deadly worm dug its way into Windows XP and Vista computers, capitalizing on a security flaw that Microsoft discovered and patched this past December or January. Millions of computers across the planet remained unpatched, however, as not everyone downloads updates from Microsoft like they should. Then, the media went ahead and told us that on April 1st, all these worms already on our computers would receive instructions from one of approximately 250 captured websites, and carry out what they were made for – to destroy computers worldwide.

So it’s over now. Five days have passed since the long-expected release of an army of destroyers that were supposed to drive us crazy and make us pull our hair out. I specifically said this on March 31st to about twenty of my friends, and I’ll repeat what I said: April 1st will come and go quietly. And essentially, it did – in the United States, at least. China fell victim to the most infected computers because the Chinese have a reputation for using pirated, illegal versions of Microsoft operating systems that are unable to receive updates. An estimated 14% of all infected computers in the world were from China, while less than 2% were from the United States.

So it’s over. The dust has settled. We’re all safe.

April Fools!

… Okay, that was lame. Pretend I never said that.

Most experts believe that the Conficker.C was never intended to have a massive break-out on April 1st. Everyone was too prepared, everyone was too safeguarded, everyone was just plain too ready. Various sources state that the trigger date never actually was April 1st, but some other date all along. Nobody except the masterminds behind the Conficker really knows when this is. I guess we’ll have to wait and find out.

Note: All Macs are immune to the Conficker.C worm.