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Microsoft warns of new Conficker clone

Microsoft has warned that a new virus has been engineered by cyber crooks to operate in the same way the now infamous Conbficker worm caused online security issues.

The organisation's Malware Protection Center has warned that malware writers have adapted a four-year-old virus to take advantage of vulnerabilities in Windows.

In a blog posting, the organisation states that "Neeris is a worm that has been active for a few years" and has been programmed to exploit MS08-067 flaw, which made Conficker successful.

"It looks like the authors of Neeris have been taking notes from Conficker. A new variant of the Neeris worm has been launched this week. It has some interesting similarities to Conficker," says the post.

These include using HTTP to download a copy of the worm from the attacking machine.

It was feared that Conficker would cause chaos on April 1st but the day passed without the online threat living to up its expectations.

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