DNS Changer Malware May Have Booted You From the Internet: Here’s What You Can Do
- Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:04pm by
Jason Howerton
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(The Blaze/AP) – Having trouble getting online?
Some may find their smartphones working overtime because the family computer couldn’t seem to connect to the Internet Monday morning.
(Related: The FBI Could Cut Your Internet Access in Four DAys (Here’s How to Prevent It)
The FBI has been warning people for months and The Blaze reported on the topic extensively. Still, you may be one of thousands across the United States who waited too long or simply didn’t believe the warnings, and your Internet may have shut down just after midnight because of malware that took over computers around the world more than a year ago.
(Related: Are You Going to Click the FBI’s Link to See If Your Computer is Infected With Malware?)
At 12:01 a.m. EDT, the FBI turned off the Internet servers that were functioning as a temporary safety net to keep infected computers online for the past eight months. The court order the agency had gotten to keep the servers running expired, and it was not renewed.
FBI handout via Wired
Now, if your computer is infected, your only hope is your Internet service provider’s help desk.
In South Korea, there were no reports from affected computers Monday. As many as 80 computers there are believed to be infected with the malware that may cause problems in Web surfing, down from 1,798 computers in February, according to the government.
“The impact will be limited,” said Lee Sang-hun, head of network security at the Korea Communications Commission, a government body. The government and private broadband providers opened helplines and issued warnings. They also asked users to check if their computers were infected and to download antivirus software. South Korea is one of the most wired countries in the world, with more than 90 percent of households connected to broadband Internet.
The problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of more than 570,000 infected computers around the world. When the FBI went in to take down the hackers late last year, agents realized that if they turned off the malicious servers being used to control the computers, all the victims would lose their Internet service.
In a highly unusual move, the FBI set up the safety net. They brought in a private company to install two clean Internet servers to take over for the malicious servers so that people would not suddenly lose their Internet.
And they arranged for a private company to run a website,http://www.dcwg.org , to help computer users determine whether their computer was infected and find links to other computer security business sites where they could find fixes for the problem.
From the onset, most victims didn’t even know their computers had been infected, although the malicious software probably slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.
Efforts to solve the issue have been hindered a bit by a few factors: Many computer users don’t fully understand the technologically complex machines they use every day to send e-mail, shop, and surf for information. The cyber world of viruses, malware, bank fraud and Internet scams is often distant and confusing, and warning messages may go unseen or unheeded.
And other people simply don’t trust the government, and believe that federal authorities are only trying to spy on them, or take over the Internet, by pushing solutions to the infection. Blogs and other Internet forums are riddled with postings warning of the government using the malware as a ploy to breach American citizens’ computers – a charge that the FBI and other cybersecurity experts familiar with the malware quickly denounced as ridiculous.
There is an underlying sense that this has been much ado about nothing – like the hoopla over Y2K, when the transition to the year 2000 presented technical problems and fears that some computers would stop working because they were not set up for the date change. In the end there were very few problems.
Considering that there are millions of Internet users across the country, several thousand losing access isn’t a big deal – unless you are one of them.
Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., who co-founded the cybersecurity caucus in Congress, said computer users have a responsibility to practice good cyber hygiene and make sure their computers have not been infected or hijacked by criminals.
“These types of issues are only going to increase as our society relies more and more on the Internet, so it is a reminder that everyone can do their part,” he said.
FBI officials have been tracking the number of computers they believe still may be infected by the malware. As of July 4, there were about 45,600 in the U.S. – nearly 20,000 less than a week earlier. Worldwide, the total is roughly 250,000 infected. The numbers have been steadily declining, and recent efforts by Internet service providers may limit the problems Monday.
Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent, said many Internet providers have plans to try to help their customers. And some may put technical solutions in place Monday that will correct the server problem. It they do that, the Internet will work, but the malware will remain on victims’ computers and could pose future problems.
Other Internet providers have simply braced for the calls to their help lines.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Jimizrite
Posted on July 10, 2012 at 9:49am“having trouble getting online?” ……. WTF? ……. How the h3LL would I be reading this if I had had trouble getting online? …… Who writes this crap?
Report Post »yahyah
Posted on July 14, 2012 at 2:26pmMost people have more than one internet device and may need this info to repair their computer systems. You can get on the internet with your phone or tv device or prehaps your tv itself.
Report Post »Meyvn
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:18pmI fixed my dns issue this morning by creating dns records that map all outside IP addresses to theblaze.com. It’s working quite well.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:26pmCute :)
Report Post »Disgusted_in_CT
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 6:28pmDNS Changer Malware May Have Booted You From the Internet:
Here’s What You Can Do
Psst, hey blaze, if they were booted I don’t think they would be able to read it.
Thanks for the chuckle.
Report Post »yahyah
Posted on July 14, 2012 at 2:26pmyou can on your phone
Report Post »simplygilly
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 6:20pmI could be wrong but if you are reading this you haven’t lost your internet. DAH
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 8:32pmThe first Data Comm (Tele Com for IBM types)…. Message was: ‘if you don’t get this, call me’!
Report Post »South Philly Boy
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 5:32pmJust BULL
Report Post »Matt Graham
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 5:06pmWorking for a company called GrayTechs doing computer repair in North Canton, Ohio, and also as the tech guy for my friends and family, I‘ve seen that there’s a lot of misconceptions surrounding what exactly this whole thing is.
Most of my friends and our customers seem to be equating this to the equivalent of the Y2K scare, while in actuality, it’s nothing like it at all. They seem to think like this is some sort of attack on the Internet itself, which is completely untrue.
It‘s mainly ignorance on the user’s part. Google, for example, has been alerting people infected with the virus for some time now. Also, the DNSChanger virus is probably not the only problem on these computers, so their search has probably been hijacked as well.
Report Post »scrudge
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 4:52pmAh Yes…. DIDN’T BOTHER ME
Report Post »RightThinking1
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 4:42pmI too, wonder how I am expected to read this story…
Report Post »jungle J
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 2:30pmfind the people that do this and put a round in them.
Report Post »HumbleMan
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 1:38pmThis topic reminds me of a email sent by an admin secretary telling everyone email was not working. What are we supposed to do, print it out and mail it to our friends who can’t access internet?
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 2:01pmSo y;a been jackbooted from the e-net….then, how ya supposta read this article on how ta get back-on????? Can ya say…S T U P I D ?? If y’o readin-it, arren’t ya ON the e-net right now???
Report Post »HAHAHAHAHAHhahahahahha!!
Nemo13
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 1:10pmDON’T DO IT. NEVER trust the gov’t. Are they also now internet experts? NO. If there was some huge issue with this, your virus program company would alert you / have an update. Because: That is what they are for. So the gov’t now is better at it than Norton or Kaspershy or whoever? RIIIIGHT. No diff than the swine flu or bird flu, BIG warnings! Nothing happened. Stay clear of these nutjobs.
Report Post »SimpleTruths
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 1:31pmThe government (DARPA) invented the modern day internet you idiot.
Report Post »HumbleMan
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 1:40pmNot true, the physics community implemented it (surprisingly without the help of Al Gore). It was the scientists who needed to share information which spurred the invention.
Report Post »woodyee
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:54pmWhy now?
Report Post »According to Obammies Nazi’s, this thing has been around a long time, so why do we need such an urgent fix NOW, on top of many, many monthd of silence?!?
G-WHIZ
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 2:08pm…and yes folks! annother Obama-lie/crysis to keep US busy [not-seeing] our constitution being flushed down Mr. John E. Crapper’s device (wich has been ‘NEW AND IMPROVED’ for gubbiment work).
Report Post »Wolf
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 2:23pmUmmm… it’s Monday- D-Bomb Day for the bug. If you don’t have it fixed now, you’re not on line to fix it, so it’s immaterial.
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:47pmDo not trust any of them, because what you are dealing with you can see coming out of the mouth of that Administration, and that is lies, deceit and agendas contrary to God and the U.S.A.
Report Post »woodyee
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:46pmUh, say what?!?
Report Post »Like hell I’m giving a US Gobblement website access to my cpu just a few months shy of a major election!
Kevin M
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:31pmOne thing you CAN’T do if it booted you from the internet is read this article.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:49pmUnless you have 2 computers or an (infected) computer and a smart phone….
Report Post »Apple Bite
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:28pmPbbbttt!!!!1
Problem with this is, if they were booted off-line, they couldn’t read about it until later on another PC. Me? I simply don’t trust D.C. at this point and time. And why should I? They haven’t instilled any trust in me, why should I in them?
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:41pm@Apple Bite
I don’t trust them either and think there is more behind this than being reported.
I was wondering how they came up with the “64,000 computers in the US infected” number. Usually a number for something like this is rounded off.
I could just see them sting in a room trying to decide what number to come up with and someone saying, :Well, that’s the $64,000 question isn’t it?” And then they all look at each other and decide on 64,000.
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:46pmDon’t.
Report Post »PingPongPing
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 12:20pmthe FBI are a bunch of idiots. they should have just let the people figure it out by themselves and have them suffer the inconvenience on their own. Its a waste of taxpayer’s money.
Report Post »