Malware-- July 9th

[Dennis Alwon]

I just read an interesting story in our local paper. It may be worth checking out your computer as it may be infected from a year ago. Apparently on Monday thousands of computers may lose internet connection because of malware that may be on there machine from as long as a year ago. They give an easy way to check to see if your machine is infected. I did it so it is safe.


http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/07...y-knock-thousands-off.html#storylink=misearch

The only way this is electrically related is that we all use computers for our business and this would be helpful to members. If the mods feel it inappropriate then take her away. I personally think it is a worthwhile effort.

 

[charlie b]

Whenever I see any of these mass scare stories, I believe nothing until I check out the story on snopes.com. This one is reported, by snopes.com, as being true.
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/dnschanger.asp

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Whenever I see any of these mass scare stories, I believe nothing until I check out the story on snopes.com. This one is reported, by snopes.com, as being true.
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/dnschanger.asp

Yep.. I checked and it wasn't an email. Those email stories are generally bull.

 

[jumper]

Yep.. I checked and it wasn't an email. Those email stories are generally bull.

Good info Dennis, thanks.

Link said I was clean.

 

[jumper]

The only way this is electrically related is that we all use computers for our business and this would be helpful to members. If the mods feel it inappropriate then take her away. I personally think it is a worthwhile effort.

Err,, Dennis,,, Last time I checked you were one of those mods.

 

[GerryB]

Help- What is the IP address again? Where do you find

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Here is the simple link http://www.dns-ok.us/

I doubt many of will find a problem but it is a simple check to be sure

 

[GerryB]

Thanks, got a green screen.

 

[Little Bill]

Thanks, got a green screen.

I've been seeing this warning for a few months now. I believe I read that most that could/would be infected were commercial businesses but some residential users could as well. I'm clean too, I have checked several times just to make sure over the last few months.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Before too many people get too worked up over a news story intended to be semi-sensationalized, keep in mind that most people infected by this malware have already been notified by their service provider. Yes, there are a lot of people still infected, but that number is actually pretty low on the face of it. There is very little need to panic.

The DNS changer has modified the affected computers so that instead of going to a real DNS server to acquire an IP address for a website, it went to a rogue DNS server that handed out incorrect IP addresses. As a temporary measure, the FBI set up a real DNS server at the location where this rogue server once resided. That is the part the comes to an end on Monday.

The problem isn't that the malware will suddenly do something on Monday, but that their computer won't know how to navigate the internet after this temporary DNS server gets shut down.

The reason why internet service providers can tell infected computer owners that they are infected, is because they can see that these computers are quarrying the FBI's replacement server.

Even if your computer stops accessing the internet on Monday, it doesn't mean you can't fix it. It just means you can't use the internet to help you search for the fix. You wouldn't be able to search for the solutions for repairing it, but you could do that with another computer and then transfer those answers/solutions to the infected computer with a flash drive.

The problem is real, but unfortunately the news media has once again chosen to over-sensationalize the issue in order to sell more stories.