Tigermike 3,427 Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Malware may knock thousands off Internet on Monday WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite repeated alerts, 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 taken over their machines more than a year ago. The warnings about the Internet problem have been splashed across Facebook and Google. Internet service providers have sent notices, and the FBI set up a special website. According to the FBI, 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. People 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. And while it was the first time they'd done something like that, FBI officials acknowledged that it may not be the last since authorities are taking on more of these types of investigations. The temporary Internet system they set up, however, 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. But popular social networking sites and Internet providers have gotten more involved, reaching out to computer users to warn of the problem. There is more at the link: http://www.charter.n...ap.org>&ps=1011 What the ‘Internet doomsday’ virus is and how to fix it http://www.washingto...vhPW_story.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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