Is some kind of virus supposed to attack on April 1st?

Thanks to Susan Bradly for much of what is below. (http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/Default.aspx )

There's a lot of buzz about a "new" worm, Conficker D,set to attack on April 1st. The press is filled with warnings and what seems to be the possibility of the end of life as we know it....

Reality is that, while this is a serious potential problem, it's not nearly as bad as the press is making it to be. First of all, you need to be already infected with a previous version, Conficker B. Second, if you:

1. have a good antivirus software and have kept it up to date
2. installed all the latest Windows updates
3. open e-mails and attachments only from recognized senders

you are in very good shape. Here are some Q&A from MS:

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ANSWERS TO COMMON QUESTIONS
==================================

Q: What will happen on April 1, 2009?
A: Based on our collective technical analysis, we've determined that systems infected with the latest version of Conficker will begin to use a new algorithm to determine what domains to contact. We have not identified any other actions scheduled to take place on April 1, 2009.

Q: Will an updated version of Conficker go out to already-infected systems on April 1, 2009?
A: It is possible that systems with the latest version of Conficker will be updated with a newer version of Conficker on April 1, 2009 by contacting domains on the new domain list. However, these systems could be updated on any date before or after April 1, 2009 including via the "peer-to-peer" updating channel in the latest version of Conficker.

Q: Should the general public be alarmed? Why or why not?
A: No, the general public should not be alarmed. Most home users have been protected by Microsoft Security Update MS08-067
(http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-067.mspx) being applied automatically.

Q: What should people who are worried about April 1, 2009 and Conficker do?
A: We recommend that home users who have not yet enabled automatic updates do so and ensure their security software is up to date with the latest antivirus signatures for the antivirus product they use.
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There's a lot of good information about this. I'll list some links at the end . Probably two of the best and easiest to understand are:

http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001636.html
http://www.secureworks.com/research/blog/index.php/2009/3/27/conficker-april-fools-hype/

Very straight forward and clear. Bottom line is practice "safe computing" and this won't be a problem for you.

http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Entry.aspx?Name=Worm%3aWin32%2fConficker.d
http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Entry.aspx?Name=Worm%3aWin32%2fConficker.b
http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc/default.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx

Good luck, folks. If we are prepared the right way, this will be another "non-event"....