Users blamed as Conficker dominates top 10 threats list

Consumers are contributing to the continued spread of the Conficker worm by failing to protect their PCs warned Eset.

The security company said that despite the publicity the malware has generated, it is still appearing at the top of its monthly threat report. The main reason is people fail to undertake the basic security steps such as applying patches, security updates and turning off Auto Run.

In its blog Eset said that this failure to apply essential security updates is not a new problem and the reason other mass mailed attacks, such as Netsky, Mydoom and Bagle, still linger on years after patches and anti-virus definitions have been released.

David Harley, Eset’s director of malware intelligence said: "I would guess that right now, much of the continuing prominence of Conficker in the ratings is due to lots of machines, mainly home machines or botnetted business machines that are never patched or properly protected by anti-virus software.

“This is often because the owner doesn't bother with all that, or maybe sometimes because of a longstanding infection that's blocking patches and updates and has never been noticed."

Eset said people should ensure they have applied the Microsoft patch, which has been available since the end of October last year.