As security researchers downplay the hype over a possible April Fools Day meltdown caused by the Conficker worm, the Department of Homeland Security is doing its part to help secure federal and state government agencies, commercial vendors,and critical infrastructure owners.

According to InformationWeek, the DHS US-CERT team created worm-scanning software to help organizations look for computers infected by the worm. Available through the Government Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams Portal, this is the only tool aimed at enterprises like government agencies, says US-CERT director Mischel Kwon. Other businesses and consumers can get updated worm-mitigating tools thanks to the help of researchers at the Honeynet Project and Conficker Cabal.

If you're looking for more information about Conficker and how to protect yourself, there's no shortage of advice. Though do be careful about which sites you visit, as hackers are capitalizing on the building hysteria. guardian.co.uk says it's easy to protect yourself, if you know how, noting that only Windows PC users should be concerned. ZDNet blogger Adrian Kingsley-Hughes offers a "no bull" guide to Conficker. He says if you have a fully patched system, then you have nothing to worry about. MacWorld blogger Rob Griffiths agrees,

"... unless you’re running Windows inside a virtual machine or via Boot Camp, you really don’t have much to fear from Conficker."