A malware program that has been in circulation for about a year may cause tens of thousands of computer users to lose their internet connections on Monday. An international hacking scam that has infected thousands upon thousands of computers caused users to connect to a remote DNS server instead of their regular internet service providers.
The malware operated by Rove Digital altered user DNS settings, pointing victims to malicious DNS in data centers in Estonia, New York, and Chicago. The malicious DNS servers would give fake, malicious answers, altering user searches, and promoting fake and dangerous products. Because every web search starts with DNS, the malware showed users an altered version of the Internet.
The FBI raided the data centers and brought the criminals to justice, but they realized that if they shut down the offender’s servers that over 570,000 users would lose their internet service. They have since, set up clean servers to keep people connected so they would suddenly not lose their connection. On this coming Monday however, the FBI plans on shutting down these servers which may cause thousands of victims to lose their internet if they are still infected with the malware.
Internet service providers have sent notices to those they believe to be infected in the hopes that they will be aware and remove the malware before the switch happens. Both Google and Facebook have also sent out countless warnings and notices to spread awareness.
To check to see if your computer is infected, visit http://www.dcwg.org/ and perform their free scans and removal.
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