amandasgramma

WARNING: Hey, folks, you're depending on the Media -- the newspapers or television, to tell you the "truth"....remember, THEY are not always right!!! THEY can be scammed, too. Go to your program that protects your computer (Nortons, McAfee) and see what they say....Do not click into ANY of the sites that are sent to you --- that's the way the worms/viruses get into your computer.

ItsJustMe

Very helpful. Thanks!

Peckish

Ain't that the truth.

peonyblue

Hi jitkaau, Can you please tell me what site ? thanks

NanaCsews2

As much as we can tell, it is legit. Here is an article from PC magazine.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401227,00.asp

And here is the link from the FBI site
https://forms.fbi.gov/check-to-see-i...sing-rogue-DNS

And if you are like me and want to know if there is any truth to unbelievable stories, check out Snopes.com
http://www.snopes.com/info/inthenews.asp

countryone77

Thanks! I had never heard of this before, and from what it says on the FBI site, it's been going on for quite a while (first article posted Nov 2011). I only have Macs, but my DH has MS Windows PCs, so this is of high interest to me.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011...malware_110911

jeanharville

I can see now why I couldn't find anything on this when I searched for Internet Blackout July 9. That's not how it is discribed in our news. I went to the FBI sight above and checked my router IP and seems it is not one infected. But will know for sure July 9. Thanks for all the investigative work and the postings.

patricej

Our security professionals investigated the "rumors" flying around about this. The facts as presented by all the different sources seem to have muddied the information pool, but the basic report is true. snippets from the FBI website report found at http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011...malware_110911 :

"Six Estonian nationals have been arrested and charged with running a sophisticated Internet fraud ring that infected millions of computers worldwide with a virus and enabled the thieves to manipulate the multi-billion-dollar Internet advertising industry. Users of infected machines were unaware that their computers had been compromised—or that the malicious software rendered their machines vulnerable to a host of other viruses."

"Update on March 12, 2012: To assist victims affected by the DNSChanger malicious software, the FBI obtained a court order authorizing the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) to deploy and maintain temporary clean DNS servers. This solution is temporary, providing additional time for victims to clean affected computers and restore their normal DNS settings. The clean DNS servers will be turned off on July 9, 2012, and computers still impacted by DNSChanger may lose Internet connectivity at that time."

Good news: the creeps were arrested months ago.
Good news: Internet Service Providers were notified and have had months to take action to protect their users.
Good news: the FBI also provided a combination of websites and step-by-step instructions we can use easily to check our computers.

The threat is not exclusive to PC users. Macsters were vulnerable, too. I'm just guessing but assume that means other operating systems may also have been vulnerable to compromise.

It's important to note, also, that unsecured in-home/office routers may also have been compromised.

Read the whole report at the FBI website, then follow the useful links they've provided. The two most important are:

- Learn more about DNSChanger malware and how it can affect your computer
- Check your computer’s DNS settings

bbeyes

There was an article in the local newspaper listing this same address to get this same information. I don't think the paper would print something like this if it wasn't true.

alwayslearning

Thanks to PatriceJ for having the pros check on this for us.