The Conficker will be back! The countdown has begun! The Conficker time bomb will blast on 1st April! Well, that's what the recent reports are saying about the Conficker worm, which created chaos in the tech world by infecting millions of computers around the globe. Security researchers have warned that it should not be taken lightly as April Fool's Day prank.

According to the reports, the latest variant of the Conficker worm, a major update of the malware, is set to hit the computers on the Internet on April 1. It is expected to blast out update requests to hundreds or thousands of its 50,000 domains.

Well, what exactly the latest version of the Conficker worm will do isn't known, but the world is well aware of what the Conficker worm has done and what it can do. Security researchers have reported that the Conficker worm, a. k. a Kido or Downadup, appeared in November last year. It exploited a security hole in Windows, which was patched by Microsoft in October last year.

Conficker. B was detected in February this year. It spreads through shared networks and through removable storage devices, like USB drives, through the AutoRun function in Windows. Conficker. C appeared earlier this month. It closes security services, stops computers from getting connected to security Web sites, and downloads a Trojan. It links up to other infected computers through peer-to-peer networking, by building peer-to-peer communication between infected systems and a new domain-generation algorithm. It includes a list of 50,000 different domains, of which, the infected computers are expected to contact 500, on April 1, to get updated copies or other malware or instructions.

According to security researchers, Conficker. C also adds several defensive tools aimed to avoid detection and removal by disabling Windows Automatic Updates and Windows Security Center. It makes antivirus programs ineffective and blocks access to the security sites. The A and B versions of the Conficker infected around 12 million computers worldwide. The most notable feature of the Conficker worm is that it can patch its own vulnerability on the computers infected by it.

While, the reports, saying that "the latest variant of the Conficker worm will hit on April 1" are vexing the computer users world wide, the security researchers are saying that there are malware removal tools and protections available for users. Dean Turner, director of the global intelligence network at Symantec Security Response, said, "It doesn't mean we're going to see some large cyber event on April 1."

Adriel Desautels, CTO of Netragard said, "I don't think that the threat comes from the worm itself, it comes from the people that are in control of the mass of Conficker-infected systems. Those people have an immensely powerful weapon at their disposal, and that weapon threatens all of us."