( CNN ) -- Remember Conficker ? About 5 million computers still are believed to be infected with 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 . `` Conficker does stand out as one of those bots that is very large and has been able to sustain itself on the Web , '' which is rare , said Porras , who also is a member of the international group tracking Conficker . Still , computer users , even those infected with Conficker , have n't seen much in the way of terrifying results . After the botnet relaunched April 1 , it gained further access to an army of computers that the program 's author or authors could control . The only thing the author or authors have done with that power , though , is to try to sell fake computer-security software to a relatively small segment of Conficker-stricken computers , Porras said . The lack of a major attack has led some people in the security community to assume that the worm is basically dead . Mikko Hypponen , chief research officer with F-Secure , an Internet security company , says the people who created Conficker would have launched a major offensive by now if they were going to . Hypponen , who is scheduled to speak about the Conficker botnet next week at Black Hat , a major computer security conference , said he thinks whoever made Conficker did n't mean for the worm to get so large , as the size of the botnet drew widespread attention from the security community and the media . `` This gang , they knew their stuff . They used cutting-edge technology that we had never before . ... I 've been working in viruses for 20 years , and there were several things that I 'd never seen at all , '' he said . `` That , to me , would tell that perhaps this is a new group or a new gang , someone who tried it for the first time . '' He added , `` The more experienced attackers do n't let their viruses or their worms spread this widely . They , on purpose , keep their viruses smaller in size in order to keep them from headlines . '' Veteran botnet creators tend to hold the size of the malicious networks to about 2,000 to 10,000 computers to keep from being noticed , he said . `` Even if the [ Conficker ] gang would want to continue operations , most likely they would drop the current botnet and start something new , '' he said . Don DeBolt , director of threat research for CA , an information technology company , said researchers are still watching Conficker . `` It 's still being tracked , so it is still active out there , but certainly the threat has been mitigated by all of the attention and focus that it has received , '' he said . DeBolt said the press hyped the Conficker story because it was tied to April Fool 's Day and because it made so many computers vulnerable to attack . He said other viruses and botnets pose more serious threats . Graham Cluley , senior technology consultant at Sophos , a computer security company , said the infected Conficker network is still growing . `` The interesting thing is , the hackers never really did much with the botnet that they created . So they created an army of lots and lots of computers ... but they 've never really done anything with it , '' he said . `` They were almost frightened off doing it . '' Others disagree with that assessment . Hypponen said Conficker was not hype ; it was the largest network of its kind seen since 2003 and deserved the attention it got from the security community and from the public . Porras said theories about the the motives of Conficker 's creator are based on speculation . The important thing , he said , is that security experts will continue to work to reduce the number of computers infected with the worm .
Conficker , a feared computer worm , has n't caused much damage yet . Security experts disagree about whether Conficker threat has passed . Comment: Some infected computers have received malicious anti-virus software .