This is NOT a hoax. Please take this warning seriously.
Three days from today, on Monday, July 9, the FBI may cut off your access to the Internet if your computer is infected with a malware.
Warnings about this have been splashed across Facebook and Google, and Internet service providers have sent notices as well. But tens of thousands of Americans may still lose their Internet service Monday unless they do a quick check of their computers for malware that could have stealthily taken over their machines more than a year ago.
Despite repeated alerts, the number of computers that probably are infected is more than 277,000 worldwide, down from about 360,000 in April. Of those still infected, the FBI believes that about 64,000 are in the United States.
Users whose computers are still infected Monday will lose their ability to go online, and they will have to call their service providers for help deleting the malware and reconnecting to the 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 a 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.
But that temporary system will be shut down at 12:01 a.m. EDT Monday, July 9.
Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their Web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.
To check whether a computer is infected, users can visit a website run by the group brought in by the FBI: http://www.dcwg.org. This link also provides resources for how to "disinfect" your computer should the malware be found on it. Fixing the problem will be much harder once your access to the Internet is cut off.
H/t The Blaze
Yesterday, I went onto http://www.dcwg.org and followed the instructions for my operating system, WindowsXP, to see if my "DNS Setting" matches the malicious DNS Setting. Happily, my computer is not infected with this malicious malware.
So go to http://www.dcwg.org to check if your computer is infected!
Do it now!
~Eowyn
WordPress.com
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