FBI to Cut Off Users With DNSChanger Trojan

FBI to Cut Off Users With DNSChanger Trojan

As expected, the FBI will possibly cut off Internet access to millions of people on March 8, 2012 to help the country get rid of the DNSChanger Trojan. As a note: this does not affect all Internet users in the United States.

The DNSChanger Trojan is a worm that changes the infected computer’s DNS (Domain Name Service) to send its victims to malicious/fraudulent sites instead of the site they are requesting. It also prevents the victim from visiting any antivirus/security websites that can help diagnose or cure the infected computer. Based from a report, millions of computer are infected and users do not know that they are infected with the DNSChanger Trojan. Over half of all Fortune 500 companies and 27 government agencies are infected with the Trojan.

As of right now, the 6 Estonian men that are behind to the Trojan worm are arrested and behind bars at the moment. As of right now, the Feds has given the permission to the FBI to set up temporary DNS servers to help users identify that their computers are infected with the DNSChanger Trojan and help remove the Trojan from their machine.

However, Computers still infected with DNSChanger are up against the countdown clock. The court order that allowed the FBI to run temporary DNS service is set to expire on March 8, 2012. When that date comes, and if the Feds to not extend the date of the temporary DNS servers in place by the FBI, users that are still infected with the DNSChanger Trojan will loose Internet service.

Luckily, as of right now, users can check if their machiene is infected with the worm by visiting the DNSChanger workgroup at http://dcwg.org. On the site, there are instructions to check if your Mac/Windows/Operating System or even their router is infected with the trojan as well as instructions on removing the trojan from your system.

Though, do you think the expiration date should be extended?