Mass Internet blackout starting Monday as FBI shuts down several servers: Will you be affected?
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Hundreds of thousands of users' access to the Internet will be cut off starting 12:01 a.m. EDT Monday July 9th, as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shuts down several interim servers. However you can go to www.dcwg.org. or follow this step-by-step plan laid out by the authorities to determine whether your computer has been hijacked by these rogue servers and call your Internet provider on Monday if you have trouble getting online so they can help delete the offending malware.
The FBI had stepped in to provide temporary servers to about 4 million users around the globe whose computers were infected by a virus called DNSChanger. For five years now, these computers, unbeknown to the users, were attacked by a group of six Estonian cyber criminals, who reportedly made over $14 million from this online fraud.
These hackers directed users to rogue search-engines with malicious advertisement whenever they accessed the Internet, bypassing Google, Bing, Microsoft or any other well known server out there. So someone would think they were logging on to a familiar site, when in fact they were going to a duplicate, where their personal information was stolen.
Fortunately, the hackers were arrested in November of 2011, but their infected servers could not be taken down immediately for this would have pulled the plug on online access for millions. Instead, the FBI had the nonprofit Internet Systems Consortium set up several interim servers to bypass the ones compromised, while users who were infected cleaned their computers.
But not all users have cleaned up their systems and a reported 304,000 computers worldwide are still infected, 70,000 of that number in the U.S. along with 50 Fortune 500 companies. In fact many do not even know that they are in the "danger zone," despite Google and Facebook's claims of warning users about the dangers. The malware had also prevented users from updating their anti-virus software so their old versions wouldn't catch the culprit.
Now this temporary safe haven, which was supposed to be removed in March, will start closing down operation beginning Monday. Those still granted access through those servers will not be able to log on to the World Wide Web.
Cyber crime is on the rise and catching these criminals can be a daunting task for this is new territory for law enforcement. The Internet is vast and hackers are coming up with newer and more inventive ways of beating the system. In fact, tehy always seem to be a step ahead of the authorities.