W32.Downadup.C the next big hit?

I don\’t cover viruses here much, but after reading about this in a few places a few things stood out.

This is an article from PCWorld that describes a notification from Symantec.

Downadup is a virus that execute instructions from an infected machine. Apparently, the new variant is more hardened against anti virus tools (looks like a removal kit will be required for this one too.)

But I noticed a few things

  1. This was caught in a \”honeypot\” but hasnt been reported on customer sites, can\’t be too long
  2. Does the first Antivirus software developer to report a new big virus get a surge of subscribers? (If so, is this a driving factor)

Some good advice at the bottom of the first reader comment

People, don\’t worrry about malware if you would simply heed the following precautions:

  1. get automatic critical patches enabled.
  2. ensure your AV solution is up to date

But most importantly, and this is the tough one:

Operate with the Least User Privilege principle

Now I am sure I don\’t do this, Also not sure whether it is worth the difference, as my Antivirus solution (I am using Avast) seems to do the job just nicely.

Anyone done this, any research you can point me to about its effectiveness?