For those of you who have been slacking on proper maintenance of your PC, this weekend may be a good time to get your computers scanned & cleaned because if you happen to be an unlucky victim of the DNSChanger malware, there is a fair chance you will be cut off from Internet access.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched a successful bust of a criminal ring that essentially spread the DNSChanger malware across the entire Internet back in 2007. DNSChanger is actually classified as a Trojan malware which redirects your computer to hacked websites that hackers then use to sell advertisement placements. In this particular case, the criminal ring managed to sell over $14 million worth of advertisement placements over the course of four years.
The scheme was finally brought to an end in late 2011 in the eastern European country of Estonia. Since, however, compromised PCs are still being routed to alternate DNS servers that were set by the trojan malware, the FBI could not shutdown the servers without causing all infected computers to lose internet connectivity. As a result, the FBI temporarily setup the necessary DNS servers to keep all affected internet users online. Eventually such duties were delegated to the Internet System Consortium which will only maintain the service until this upcoming Monday.
So what exactly do you need to do to ensure you'll remained connected? First and foremost, it's important that you find out whether or not your computer is infected. A DNSChanger check-up website has been set-up for that very purpose. If a graphic is displayed with a green background, that means your computer is good to go; however, if a graphic with a red background is displayed, that means you are infected with the trojan.
No need to panic if you've got the trojan. There are plenty of tools on the internet to help fix the problem. The DNSChanger Working Group posted a list of anti-malware programs that can rid your system of the affliction. According to Gunter Ollmann of Damballa (security research company), DNSChanger should be “a very easy one to fix”, so it seems like a good idea to check your PC either sometime today or tomorrow to avoid any unnessary hassle Monday morning.
For more info on what you can do if your computer is infected, visit http://www.dcwg.org.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched a successful bust of a criminal ring that essentially spread the DNSChanger malware across the entire Internet back in 2007. DNSChanger is actually classified as a Trojan malware which redirects your computer to hacked websites that hackers then use to sell advertisement placements. In this particular case, the criminal ring managed to sell over $14 million worth of advertisement placements over the course of four years.
The scheme was finally brought to an end in late 2011 in the eastern European country of Estonia. Since, however, compromised PCs are still being routed to alternate DNS servers that were set by the trojan malware, the FBI could not shutdown the servers without causing all infected computers to lose internet connectivity. As a result, the FBI temporarily setup the necessary DNS servers to keep all affected internet users online. Eventually such duties were delegated to the Internet System Consortium which will only maintain the service until this upcoming Monday.
So what exactly do you need to do to ensure you'll remained connected? First and foremost, it's important that you find out whether or not your computer is infected. A DNSChanger check-up website has been set-up for that very purpose. If a graphic is displayed with a green background, that means your computer is good to go; however, if a graphic with a red background is displayed, that means you are infected with the trojan.
No need to panic if you've got the trojan. There are plenty of tools on the internet to help fix the problem. The DNSChanger Working Group posted a list of anti-malware programs that can rid your system of the affliction. According to Gunter Ollmann of Damballa (security research company), DNSChanger should be “a very easy one to fix”, so it seems like a good idea to check your PC either sometime today or tomorrow to avoid any unnessary hassle Monday morning.
For more info on what you can do if your computer is infected, visit http://www.dcwg.org.
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