With April Fool’s Day looming, Trend Micro is offering free protection against a new variant of the malicious Conficker worm that infected an estimated 15 million computers last year and is expected to be launched by “cyberfools” on 1 April.

Ever the opportunists and ‘concerned’ about the health and well-being of your computer, Trend Micro says, through its Australian consumer segment spokesman, David Paterson, that it’s “concerned at the exposure of many Australians, so is offering its free online scan and clean service called HouseCall to help ward off its potentially debilitating impact.”
 
“If you’re out of time or out of money to buy the latest Internet security software by Tuesday, get onto our website and get a free Trend Micro HouseCall virus scan and clean. It’s not as quick as a PC version, but will serve to protect you against the cyberfools in the short-term,” Paterson says.

“Advance protection is the best defence to this attack, and if you have good Internet security software on your computer already, make sure that it’s up to date before Tuesday, 30 March. Basic anti-virus software will not be enough.”

According to Paterson, Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet security pro users are already protected by the smart protection network, which blocks such worm attacks and prevents them from running in systems.

I suppose it’s a good bit of PR by Trend Micro to offer we Aussies free virus protection, although no doubt they’ll be keen to sell you something in the way of more security once the Conficker hullabaloo dies down!

And, although I can’t imagine too many of our IT-savvy iTWire’s readers not being well protected against attacks from the likes of Conficker, if you’re interested in taking up the offer of free virus protection, HouseCall can be found at http://housecall.trendmicro.com/au/. 

The application checks whether your computer has been infected by viruses, spyware, or other malware and performs additional security checks to identify and fix vulnerabilities to prevent re-infection.