Will You Be One of 350,000 DNS Changer Malware Infected Users Blocked from the Internet on July 9th?

dns changer malwareBack in Nov2011, there was an FBI Sting called “Operation Ghost Click” that resulted in the arrest of six Estonian cyber-criminals that used malware known as DNSChanger that infected over 4.2 million computers. Despite their arrest several months ago, there are many computers that could still be infected. So in an effort to clean up the mess left behind by their internet fraud ring, the FBI is urging internet users to check their computers for any DNS Changer malware.

One major sign of the infection is a hijacked internet browser which redirects to other unintended websites, maybe even porn sites, via fake DNS  servers. Once your computer is infected with this DNSChanger, it relies on these fake DNS servers to access “all” websites. If the DNS Changer Working Group (DCWG) were to shutdown all these fake DNS servers at once, millions of computers “still” infected with this malware would lose their internet connection. As it was, the DWCG converted all but 350,000 of these fake DNS servers to temporary “clean” DNS servers.

The DCWG recently announced that these remaining servers will finally be shutdown on 09Jul2012. As a result, computers still infected with the DNSChanger malware will lose their internet connection. But checking to see if your computer is infected with any DNSChanger malware is relatively easy and quick, just visit DCWG’s website and find out in seconds.

To get started, visit http://www.dcwg.org, click “Detect and select the URL for your language:

dcwg-website

dcwg-website

If your computer is clean, you will see an image like the one below:

dns-changer-checkup

If you are infected with the DNS Changer virus, go back and click the “Fix” icon for a list of products that may help you clean your computer. The problem at this point, is that some of these infections are malicious and may intentionally block you from using many of the well known reputable products for cleaning malware. If you find it is beyond your capability, I suggest you call one of your neighborhood computer repair shops to have it professionally cleaned.

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