Anybody else heard "Hundreds of thousands may lose Internet in July"?

[woodsprite]

It's an article posted in our local paper. If it wasn't the FBI, I'd say it was a scam. We're being encouraged at work to go to the website listed and check our computers. Has anyone else been told this or seen this info? Maybe my tinfoil hat is on too tight, but it just doesn't sound right to me. Why would the FBI care that 500K people may lose their network connections in July? and why did they artificially support it for this long without any news. I'm in IT and this is the first I've heard of this.

Here's excerpts from the article:

"....The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet....

"We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because ... if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without Internet service," said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. "The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get 'page not found' and think the Internet is broken."....

....FBI officials said they organized an unusual system to avoid any appearance of government intrusion into the Internet or private computers. And while this is the first time the FBI used it, it won't be the last...."

[Turbineguy]

1. From Norton:

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/dcwg-org/td-p/701531

[pokerfan]

2. Yeah, I posted it a few months back

Pretty easy to test...

Ensuring your system is clean is simple. First off, DNSChanger affects the Windows and Mac OS, not Linux and not mobile platforms. The DNSChanger Working Group (DCWG) website (which is currently borked from massive traffic - ed) can scan your machine for the Trojan and remove it if present. A wide array of commercial antivirus programs can also do it as well—Hitman Pro, TDSSKiller, and Windows Defender Offline, to name a few. These are all easy fixes and should be done well in advance of July 8th.

http://gizmodo.com/5904476/the-feds-will-shut-off-your-internet-if-you-dont-clean-your-computer-by-july-9

[DaveJ]

3. Fascinating

It's the first virus warning, like this, I've seen that's actually real. It's really funny how certain people are all paranoid about the FBI checking to see if their computers are clean (the site they setup doesn't even install any software). Anyway, it looks like an easy virus to fix, so anyone with AV doesn't need to worry.

[woodsprite]

6. I'm in IT in academia and a parent to a teen and preteen

I'm suspicious of any link that I'm not familiar with...And even some that are familiar

I still prefer to use Unix systems, Pine email and VI as an editor.

[frankie]

4. real

The FBI has bent over backwards to avoid concerns about government snooping or interference, while also helping people.

IMO they should have just let these PCs fall off the internet already. Anyone who has a virus infection for months on end without fixing it is a danger to their community.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

5. The original date was in March sometime, extended by court order to July 9th

hxxp://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/november/malware_110911/DNS-changer-malware.pdf

The FBI has uncovered a network of rogue DNS servers and has taken steps to disable it.
The FBI is also undertaking an effort to identify and notify victims who have been impacted
by the DNSChanger malware. One consequence of disabling the rogue DNS network is that
victims who rely on the rogue DNS network for DNS service could lose access to DNS
services. To address this, the FBI has worked with private sector technical experts to
develop a plan for a private-sector, non-government entity to operate and maintain clean
DNS servers for the infected victims. The FBI has also provided information to ISPs that can
be used to redirect their users from the rogue DNS servers to the ISPs’ own legitimate
servers. The FBI will support the operation of the clean DNS servers for four months,(Extended to July 9th)
allowing time for users, businesses, and other entities to identify and fix infected
computers. At no time will the FBI have access to any data concerning the Internet activity
of the victims.