Many computers still not patched against Conficker vulnerability

Research shows many PCs are still not patched against Conficker. The data comes from Sophos’s Endpoint Assessment Test, a free tool that scans a computer and assesses whether it is a security risk.

A single scan checks that your Microsoft service pack is the current one for your operating system, your Microsoft patches are all up to date, anti-virus protection is installed, running and current, and that a personal firewall is installed and running.

After examining the results for all users who took the test since January 1st this year, Sophos found that 11 percent still did not have the Microsoft MS08-067 patch installed which can, amongst other things, help protect against the spread of Conficker.

The situation does not appear to have improved despite recent publicity regarding Conficker – when looking at the figures just for March, 10 percent were still missing the essential patch.