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In its midyear global security report for 2009, Cisco says there's plenty to be worried about when it comes to the way that online crime operations are operating.

Bot herders and other nefarious characters are still using cutting-edge computing and social engineering. But according to Cisco's analysis, the real innovation is how those behind some of the biggest threats are collaborating in new ways. It's enterprise 2.0 for the criminal underbelly of the Internet.

Conficker, the Internet worm that caused a mild panic reminiscent of Y2K late last month, but which failed to do anything spectacular that would have warranted the breathless coverage on 60 Minutes ("The Internet is Infected"), has finally woken up. This morning the worm  started to update itself via a peer-to-peer network between infected machines after downloading its payload from a server in South Korea.

Conficker a.k.a. Downadup, is causing global concern as we move closer to D-Day; April 1st, when the latest version of the worm, Conficker.C is due to be activated.

While some news outlets are causing panic with their fear mongering, others are downplaying the upcoming event, and the net effect of course is FUD. But according to security experts, the bottom line is if you're not infected now, you don't have anything to fear come April Fools Day. If you're interested in knowing more about Conficker and how to search for and destroy it, take a look at the seven resources below.