Conficker virus..is it safe to use Internet Explorer?

[moonglow]

I want to get on my online bank account but I have to use Internet Explorer to do so. Due to how they have things set up, when I have tried to get on there before using firefox they think someone is trying to hack into my account and block me totally then I have to call the bank..blah, blah blah...

If this virus is on IE though..and the news says its trying to get financial information off of people's computers I am afraid to even try to get onto my online account. Right now I am using firefox browsers like I usually do and have had no problems...but I haven't tried to open IE yet. I tried opening it Monday and it just would not load. I tried several times and it never loaded. Now yesterday it did work...and I did get on my account but just briefly to check something. Is there anyway I can find out if my IE browser is infected? Thanks.

[bdh]

this should help: Virus alert about the Win32/Conficker.B worm (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/962007)

[NHL Fever]

Today all my anti-virus and anti-spyware programs became unable to auto-update, which is consistent with conficker. Also at least half of my browsing attempts got redirected to advertising websites. However both bitdefender and symantec's free removal app said I was not infected with conficker. After finally figuring out how to manually update AVG, I ran it and it revealed 3 viruses (none named as conficker) and a whack of tracking cookies, then froze my computer before it finished so I rebooted. I run AVG about once a week and it usually shows nothing. I reran the scan, this time it identified only the tracking cookies but also supplementary windows popped up during browsing advising me of detected viruses. I performed all recommended functions. I still cannot use auto-update on anything. The browsing appears to be back to normal. Should I try re-installing all my computer maintainance software?

As a side not your link says conficker b, what I'm seeing online is that the latest incarnation is conficker c.

Numerous websites have suggested I update to microsoft's MS08-067 bulletin. I have XP. I go to the microsoft page with the bulletin and for the life of me I cannot figure out how to actually download this file. I see the info about it, I see the list of bulletin's that this one replaces, but where the heck is the actual ms08-067 update itself?