Computer Virus May Impact 250,000
Is your computer prepared?
Oskaloosa, Iowa – This virus may keep many people from having a normal day on Monday. Simple things like being able to go to work, bank or communicate could become impossible. No, you’re not going to run to the traditional doctor to take care of this virus, this one may prevent you from using your PC.
The investigation that lead to the arrest of six Estonian nationals was announced by the FBI in November of 2011, but once the arrest was made, it became apparent that to pull the plug on the hackers servers could potentially cause a major disruption to computer users world wide.
So the FBI took the steps of setting up two servers that helped to keep the internet working for the victims, but the plug on those will be pulled at 11:00 Sunday evening.
In a press release at the time of the arrest, the FBI stated, “Beginning in 2007, the cyber ring used a class of malware called DNSChanger to infect approximately 4 million computers in more than 100 countries. There were about 500,000 infections in the U.S., including computers belonging to individuals, businesses, and government agencies such as NASA. The thieves were able to manipulate Internet advertising to generate at least $14 million in illicit fees. In some cases, the malware had the additional effect of preventing users’ anti-virus software and operating systems from updating, thereby exposing infected machines to even more malicious software.”
If your interested in finding out if your PC is infected, you can visit the following link, http://www.dns-ok.us/ . If your PC is infected and is being redirected by DNS malware, the site will help alert you to the issue.
Jake Barnes with MPTIowa in Oskaloosa helped explain what the virus is. “The virus is actually a Trojan and has a few aliases; Trojan.Win32.DNSChanger, the “Internet Doomsday Virus” or simply the DNSChanger Virus.”
The Trojan was designed to help hackers harvest usernames and passwords from unsuspecting victims by redirecting them to look-alike websites. “This is very problematic if the virus creators make a fake ebay.com or a fake paypal.com and you are unknowingly trying to logon to those fake sites with your REAL credentials, thus compromising your account information to criminals.” Barnes said.
“The best resource to remove the virus and find out more about it is to follow this link – http://www.dcwg.org/fix/. Barnes said. He also said that if you are uncomfortable performing the fix, call your computer tech for assistance. If you don’t have one, Barnes company MPTIowa offers options for those needing assistance.
I asked Barnes how one could best protect themselves and their PC from becoming infected in the future, “The biggest protection against viruses is 1st to have an updated antivirus and/or anti-spyware/malware program installed. We recommend Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.”
Barnes said that, “Anyone with further questions or concerns can contact us at 641-676-GEEK (4335) or stop in the office at 110 North E Street right next to Wendys.”
Doty’s is another local company in the IT industry and they can be reached at 641-673-4173 for your questions.
