Group takes Conficker fight to a new level

01.04.2009
Forming a global alliance to fight cybercrime isn't easy, and building an organization that can stay one step ahead of cyber crooks in more than 100 countries is close to impossible. But a band of volunteers calling itself Conficker Working Group thinks it can do it.

The group was formed earlier this year to try to contain the massive network of computers infected by the Conficker worm, which at its worst was thought to have infected 10 million computers.

The seriousness of the problem helped get the group off the ground, as technical experts from the world's top Internet companies informally banded together. At first they called themselves the Conficker Cabal, but they've now lightened the name, calling themselves the Conficker Working Group.

It's an improbably story, according to Paul Vixie, president of the Internet Systems Consortium, and one of the group's members. "It was formed as a bucket brigade because there was a house on fire," he said. "There was no way that you could get this level of talent to be focused on this if it was with a long term goal of, 'Gee, lets shape the Internet security landscape.'"

But now that it's working, members hope that it could be used to fight off other Internet threats in the future.

The group works in an informal, ad hoc way. There is a and some mailing lists, and the occasional conference call. No contracts, no fees, no workshops, and no newsletters.