Conficker (also known as Downandup or Kido) is technically speaking, a worm. Around the world, it is lurking on millions of personal computers whose owners are unaware of it (it was recently detected on the House of Commons network). Its purpose is unknown, but it's likely that Conficker is designed to create a botnet that could be used to send spam, launch denial-of-service attacks to shut down Web sites or steal data from infected computers.
Be careful about searching for Conficker removal software on Google. Scammers have managed to get fake security sites among the top searches. Bogus sites are designed to steal your credit card information and could install malware on your computer instead of a legitimate security program.
There is a test, which is not 100%, but gives a good indication as to whether your computer is infected with Conficker.
There is more here, including how to prevent being infected in the first place. For an even more technical appraisal, see the Conficker working group's pages.
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