Deadly PC virus -- Conficker C -- to strike on April 1

A security expert has cautioned that an Internet worm, called Conficker C, can strike at infected computers around the world on April 1.

Conficker C is a sophisticated piece of malicious computer software, or malware, that installs itself on a PC hard drive via specially written web pages and then conceals itself on a computer.

Graham Cluley, of the security specialist Sophos, has claimed that Conficker C is programmed "to hunt for new instructions on April 1".

However, "this does not mean that anything is going to happen, or that the worm is actually going to do anything. Simply, it is scheduled to hunt a wider range of websites for instructions on that date," The Times quoted him as saying.

And the biggest catch is that no one yet has any idea what exactly Conficker C is programmed to do.

In February, Cluley said, "It's as if someone is assembling an army of computers around the world, but hasn't yet decided where to point them."

Experts are fearing that on April 1 all the world's millions of infected computers may receive simultaneous instructions to attack, or to flood the Internet with spam email.

Ed Gibson, Microsoft's chief security adviser for the UK, was quite hesitant to make predictions about Conficker's behaviour.

"April 1 is a classic date for anything like this to go off. But I really would hate to say that April 1 is going to be unlike any other day," he said.

Agencies

Seagate sacks CEO and to cut 800 workers

Seagate Technology has replaced its top two executives and said it plans to cut 800 jobs — 10 percent of its US work force — as the hard drive maker endures a bruising slowdown in technology spending.

Its stock fell more than 15 percent. In a surprise move, the Scotts Valley-based company announced that William Watkins, 56, Seagate's chief executive since 2004, and Dave Wickersham, 52, the president and chief operating officer, had both left the company, effective immediately. Seagate declined to make either executive available for comment.

The company also announced that it plans to cut 10 percent of its 8,000 US-based workers. It has 53,000 workers worldwide.

A familiar face will fill the CEO slot. Stephen Luczo, 51, a former investment banker who served as Seagate's CEO from 1998 until 2004 amid a wrenching restructuring, will have to engineer another big turnaround to get the company back on track.

Wickersham's jobs will be taken by Robert Whitmore, 46, Seagate's executive vice president and chief technology officer.

Seagate is the world's largest maker of computer hard disk drives, with more than 30 percent of the global market. But its business has suffered badly because of the economic meltdown, which has sapped information-technology budgets and demand for new personal computers and servers that use Seagate's products.

Oversupply in the industry has also hurt Seagate and other disk drive manufacturers. Luczo takes the reigns of a company whose stock price plunged more than 80 percent last year and that warned in December its fiscal second-quarter results would fall far below Wall Street's expectations. Seagate lowered its guidance for sales in the period by about $500 million, cautioning that slumping demand and price pressures were hurting the company more than it had anticipated.

Seagate, which is scheduled to report its full quarterly results Jan. 21, expects revenue of $2.3 billion to $2.6 billion.

Agencies