Over 300,000 computers may be unable to access the internet

[Apoptosis]

According to the FBI, over 300,000 computers may be unable to access the internet Monday

In case you haven't heard, according to the FBI, there may be over 300,000 computers unable to access the internet on Monday due to a malware infection called the DNS Changer Trojan. This is because when the FBI shut down the ring of cyber-criminals that created the Trojan late last year, the FBI discovered that if they also shut down the malicious DNS servers which were being used to redirect users to malicious sites or ads, it would prevent millions of users from being able to access the internet. On Monday, July 9th, the original court order the FBI obtained that forced these servers to stay online while the FBI attempted to correct the problem, will expire, and when these servers shut down, thousands may have their internet access cut off without knowing how to repair the problem because their DNS server will be gone.

DNS servers essentially instruct a system on how to navigate through the internet. The DNS Servers basically act as an interpreter in a foreign land, helping a visitor that doesn’t speak the local language to be able to communicate with the locals and figure out where to go for food, lodging, etc. When these servers shut down on Monday, this interpreter will be gone and these computers will have no way to communicate with the locals, so, if you were the visitor, you would be stuck and unable to continue your travels.

This will affect the everyday consumer the most because most infections were spread by drive-by downloads, i.e. the piece of malware was unknowingly downloaded to their computer when they went to a web site that looked completely innocent. This points mainly to a consumer population as the target. The advice that is being put out is that users need to check if they are infected using the online scanner at the FBI-run DNS-OK.US site, or by manually "checking the DNS server IPs, however, that can be a complicated maneuver for the non-tech savvy individual to handle.

The easiest solution is to go to http://www.malwarebytes.com and download the free anti-malware Malwarebytes, and run a scan. The free Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will automatically inspect the DNS settings on the users system and determine whether or not the system is using the malicious DNS servers. If the computer is infected, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will automatically modify the settings and fix the computer’s registry which set the default DNS servers. If any of the malicious IP addresses are present, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will remove these bogus addresses, as well as any other malware infections from the computer, ensuring that the computer will obtain the correct DNS addresses from their internet server providers. In other words, Malwarebytes will find a new interpreter for every desktop, for no cost and very little hassle as the software downloads in less than a minute.