One of the world’s fastest-spreading viruses – code-named “Downadup” or “Conflicker” – has already infected over nine million computers.

Data security firm F-Secure has warned the virus is infecting corporate networks at a rate previously unseen.

According to F-Secure, Downadup uses several different methods to spread. These include using the recently patched vulnerability in Windows Server Service, guessing network passwords and infecting USB sticks.

As an end result, once the malware gains access to the inside of a corporate network, it can be unusually hard to fully eradicate.

Typical problems generated by the worm include locking network users out of their accounts. This happens because the worm tries to guess (or brute-force) network passwords, tripping the automatic lock-out of a user who has too many password failures.

Once this worm infects a machine, it protects itself very aggressively. It does this by setting itself to restart very early in the boot-up process of the computer and by setting Access Rights to the files and registry keys of the worm, so that the user can’t remove or change them.

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