A computer science detective story is playing out on the Internet as security experts try to hunt down a worm called Conficker C and prevent it from damaging millions of computers on April Fool’s Day. The anti-worm researchers have banded together in a group they call the Conficker Cabal. Members are searching for the malicious software program’s author and for ways to do damage control if he or she can’t be stopped. They’re also motivated in part by a quarter of a million dollars bounty from Microsoft.

The malicious program is already thought to have infected between 5 million and 10 million computers. Those infections haven’t spawned many symptoms, but on April 1, a master computer is scheduled to gain control of these zombie machines. What happens on April Fool’s Day is anyone’s guess.

Source: CNN