The evolution of the multi-faceted Conficker worm is expected to take another turn this May 5th when the latest version, Conficker.E, will simply self-destruct on infected machines, say a number of security researchers.

F-Secure, Trend Micro and SecureWorks are among those that believe Conficker.E—first spotted just this April and probably created by the same attackers that since last fall let loose the Conficker.A through Conficker.C variants—has been designed to simply self-detonate on May 5th.

“It will simply self-destruct,” says Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, pointing out that researchers, who had been arguing over name for variants, agreed to skip past the name “Conficker.D” entirely to settle on the name “Conficker.E.”

I've wondered for a while if .E could have been part of a coup attempt (either within Conficker's authors or external) which could explain the relatively small number of .E infections compared with reported statistics on other variants.
With a self destruct feature it could even be some 'white-hats' got control for research and are now releasing the infected machines. Would love to see some analysis if this is the case.