Atlanta Company Hunts Hackers, Conficker

At Atlanta-based Secureworks, people known as hacker hunters try to stop hackers from attacking the companies they are hired to protect. On Monday, the hacker hunters were in a race to stop the computer worm, Conficker.

"We've been working on Conficker in particular since November '08," said Chief Technology Officer Jon Ramsey.

Ramsey said the Conficker worm, which is a malicious software spread over the internet, is one of the most dangerous threats ever seen. The Conficker worm has already infected more computers than any other virus.

"Some people say it's a million, some people say it's 10 million. Let's say it's five million. It's still far more machines than any other malware that's ever been invented," said Ramsey.

The goal of hackers is to make money. Hackers can do this by gaining control of computers, controlling the keystrokes and stealing the identities.

The Conficker virus gets on computers when users surf the internet or use USB devices.

"You can find out if you have Conficker by going online. If you try and download the Microsoft update for it and get this screen you could be infected," said Ramsey. "The good news is we don't think April 1 is going to be the big event everybody's anticipating it to be."

Ramsey said experts have made progress on trying to figure out the worm.

"We think we can shut the worm down. The worm has a behavior, it's a very subtle behavior we can see on the network and filter it and prevent it," said Ramsey.

While Secureworks works to prevent widespread damage, the FBI and Homeland Security are trying to determine who is behind the toxic software.

A detection tool for government agencies has been released so they can find out if they've been infected.

To install an update for your computer, go to http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us .

If your computer has already been infected, go to www.bdtools.net .