This April Fools Day Take Precautions To Protect Your Computer
Posted: Wednesday, March 25, 2009
by Asher Ricard
April first is fast approaching leaving many PC owners worried about the safety of their computers.
Making headlines is a worm known as Conficker C predicted to cause the most damaging day in history for computers.
The worm has been infecting PCs since late last year. It's threat of damage is so high, Microsoft has offered a $250,000 bounty for locating the writer.
The fear about this worm, however, is not that the controller can not be found, but instead the unknown in what lies on April first. All infected computers are expected to come under the control of a master machine located somewhere across the web.
What does that mean? Will personal information be stolen? Will harddrives be wiped out by the worm? What are the capabilities of this worm?
As PC users, there is only one defense right now. It is to go to Microsoft and do a free online security scan at http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm
Now if you are looking to pull some non-damaging tricks using an office computer, here are some innocent, humorous tricks.
Turn the brightness contrast on the computer down until the screen is black. Your co-worker will go insane trying to figure out why their computer will not work.
Annoy-A-Tron should be a household name by now. It is sold by thinkgeek.com. It is a little metal disc that can be easily hidden that will emit a sound at random intervals. I had a friend who had it put on his brand new computer and was about to throw it out the window before he was told about it.
Take a picture of their desktop and save it as wallpaper. Then hide all their desktop icons. They will go insane trying to get their programs to open.
Finally, if you are share a cubicle with someone and love to drive the co-worker insane this is an easy, fun prank. While they are out, plug your mouse into their computer and disable theirs. They will go crazy when they figure out the mouse is "possessed."
Be safe this April Fool's Day, but don't be afraid to have some fun as well.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Asher, good job but perhaps we all should - turn it off and leave it off.
I think this April Fools virus may be just that, April Fools. It will probably go the way of the Y2K scare. But, of course, if people would just use a good ol' IMac Apple computer, they wouldn't have to worry at all.As far as your suggestions for good April Fools fun, I think their great.
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