According to the latest reports from Symantec, the Conficker worm or W32.Downadup has instructions to disable itself on May 3. Symantec also said the malware worm has infected several machines that are contacting important web sites, but they are not downloading or uploading anything. Also, researchers said they might have discovered a link to the spam-spewing bot computers controlled by the Conficker worm.

 

Another company, Trend Micro, warned Internet users that that the people behind the Conficker worm are most likely “gearing up for more serious attacks." However, this alarmist claim wasn’t supported by convincing evidence. 

 

Other internet experts said the Conficker worm is most likely more about money. The worm that was used to infect millions of Windows-based computers will probably be used to send spam and steal data. Researchers suspect that the Conficker worm is a keystroke logger, a spam generator, or even both.

According to Trend Micro, the Conficker worm is reaching out to a domain infected by the Waledac worm and downloads the encrypted file. Researchers said that the same people are behind both worms. 

 

"I'm pretty certain the same people are behind both of them," said Paul Ferguson, an advanced threats researcher for Trend Micro. "Conficker has got their (Waledac creators') fingerprints all over it."