Whatever happened to the Conficker worm?

The hugely talked-about computer worm seemed poised to wreak havoc on the world's machines on April Fool's Day. And then ... nothing much happened.

But while the doom and gloom forecast for the massive botnet -- a remotely controlled network that security experts say infected about 5 million computers -- never came to pass, Conficker is still making some worm hunters nervous.

Phillip Porras, program director at SRI International, a nonprofit research group, said Conficker infects millions of machines around the world. And the malware's author or authors could use that infected network to steal information or make money off of the compromised computer users.