Windows Conficker worm update: one in five computers lack patch

The Conficker worm that has been affecting computers running on Windows XP and Vista, especially enterprise users have now started to decrease. They have now managed to fix this six-month-old virus, but almost one in five business computers still do not have the patch to fix the security issue.

Computer World said that more than 300,000 scans of Windows PCs owned by customers of Qualys Inc have shown that those patching the MS08-067 vulnerability have picked up in the last two weeks. This has to be because of the huge media coverage of the Conficker worm.

Qualys joined a number of other security vendors in issuing a Conficker detection tool before April 1, this was when the worm was due to be switched on by hacker lords. The number of scanned PCs vulnerable to the MS08-067 started to fall on April 1, several days after they dropped from 40 percent to 20 percent.