The Conficker worm dominated the security news last spring, and now this much-publicized piece of malware is back in the press again – this time because of what we may be able to learn from the global response to the Conficker cyber attack.

Last spring, Conficker (also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido) made headlines due in part to hype surrounding the predicted April 1, 2009 activation date of its botnet of infected computers; estimates put the range of the Conficker botnet between 4 to 7 million PCs. To help combat the effects of the threat, the Conficker Working Group was set up by technology industry experts. Now it seems that the way security experts around the world banded together in this effort to respond to Conficker may very well serve as a tool for learning; the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is preparing a report, analyzing the collaboration of security researchers in addressing the threat, possibly resulting in a template for responding to future attacks.

"We said, 'This was a very good example of the private sector, globally, working together to try to solve a cyber security attack, so let's fund the creation of a lessons-learned report to just document what worked, what didn't work,'" IDG news service quotes Douglas Maughan of the DHS Science & Technology Directorate.

Stay tuned for the report, set to be released by the end of the month.