Internet shutdown on Monday, Are you a potential victim?

BANGALORE, INDIA: It is likely that you will lose your internet connectivity on Monday, July 9 2012. The cause for this shutdown is the DNS Changer malware which was constantly being used by cyber criminals to access confidential data from throughout the world.

In retaliation, the Federal Bureau Of Investigation ( FBI) had apprehended a few members of the group in November last year. But the threat of the malware still exists.

This threat has spread to various DNS servers and might have affected your computer as well.

By the way, the DNS changer Malware is a destructive computer program that masquerades and operates under various new entities. Some common entities that the DNS Changer operates under are TDSS, Alureon, TidServ and the TDL4. Through these viruses, it becomes easy for the hackers to commit online frauds.

Reportedly, the hackers apprehended by the FBI last year operated under the name “Rove Digital” and committed online frauds through which they earned approximately 14 million dollars. Not only this, as of April 23 2012, around 5,70,000 computers throughout the world have been affected by the DNS Changer and its associated entities. The FBI has expressed apprehensions about this number being even more higher as of now. This means that more people/computers/confidential data/had earned money have been victimized and illegally invaded upon.

In order to combat the DNS Changer and associated viruses from affecting more people/computers, the FBI has brought out a mechanism through which you can identify whether your computer system is affected by the DNS changer or not. There is also a deadline set by the FBI that is July 9 2012. By this date, computers infected with the DNS Changer will be denied internet access as the FBI might shut down temporary DNS Servers that are infected.

This means that if your computer is a victim of the DNS Changer, then you will not be able to access the internet with effect to July 9 2012, Monday.

There is no need to panic as the FBI has put up a robust virus scanning mechanism ( website) through which you can scan your computer and also remove the virus completely as the site also provides a step-by-step guide to remove the infection completely.

Click here to check immediately whether your computer is infected or not. So, better scan your computer and get rid of the virus or you might stand a chance of losing your internet access.