A computer-science detective story is playing out on the Internet as security experts try to hunt down a worm called Conficker C and prevent it from damaging millions of computers on April Fool’s Day.
The anti-worm researchers have banded together in a group they call the Conficker Cabal. Members are searching for the malicious software program’s author and for ways to do damage control if he or she can’t be stopped.
They’re motivated in part by a $250,000 bounty from Microsoft and also by what seems to be a sort of ~censored~ Tracy ethic.
“We love catching bad guys,” said Alvin Estevez, CEO of Enigma Software Group, which is one of many companies trying to crack Conficker. “We’re like former hackers who like to catch other hackers. To us, we get almost a feather in our cap to be able to knock out that worm. We slap each other five when we’re killing those infections.”
The malicious program already is thought to have infected between 5 million and 10 million computers.
Those infections haven’t spawned many symptoms, but on April 1 a master computer is scheduled to gain control of these zombie machines, said Don DeBolt, director of threat research for CA, a New York-based IT and software company.
What happens on April Fool’s Day is anyone’s guess.
Don’t Miss
Coders Arena is an Online Programming Contest held at Technovation.
Computer programming (often shortened to programming or coding) is the process of writing, testing, debugging/troubleshooting, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in a programming language. The code may be a modification of an existing source or something completely new. The purpose of programming is to create a program that exhibits a certain desired behavior (customization). The process of writing source code requires expertise in many different subjects, including knowledge of the application domain, specialized algorithms and formal logic.
About The Contest
In this Programming Contest you will be provided with 5 Set of Problems which are to be solved within 10 hours (whose code is to be written only in C or C++) having different points in accordance to their difficulties, the person securing the greatest number of points in least time will be awarded the prize;
Contest Rules
* All the codes are to be written with respect to gcc compilers.
*To participate in the Programming Contest (the “Contest”), you must be at least 18 years old. The Contest is open to individuals or teams of up to 3 people, but not to corporate entries. Organizers and members of their immediate families are not eligible to enter. Void where prohibited.
*With regard to the software and repository that you obtain for the Contest, you agree to the license terms as stated in files you download or receive.
