[guide.chat] no computers monday

  • From: vanessa <qwerty1234567a@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "GUIDE CHAT" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2012 22:42:04 +0100

DNSchanger shutdown may kick 300,000 offline Monday
FBI: Killing that connection in order to save it
Posted in Security, 5th July 2012 19:13 GMT
An estimated 300,000 computer connections are going to get scrambled when the 
FBI turns off the command and control servers for the DNSChanger botnet on 
Monday.

The FBI took control of the botnet in November after identifying its command 
servers and swapping them out for their own systems ? as well as arresting six 
Estonians accused of running the scam. But it left the botnet running, since 
shutting it down would have disrupted the connections of the infected systems, 
which at the botnet's height accounted for over four million computers.

DNSChanger reroutes DNS requests to its own servers and then pushes scareware 
and advertising to infected machines. Shutting it down, however, will leave 
computers unable to access websites and email properly without a fix being 
applied. The FBI had been due to shut down DNSChanger in March, but left it up 
for an extra three months to allow more time for users to disinfect their 
systems.

Companies and governments have made a big effort to clean systems with the help 
of the DNS Changer Working Group (DCWG), which was set up by security experts 
to manage the problems. But according to the latest DCWG data, there are still 
303867 infected systems out there, with around a fifth of those based in the US.

Checking for infection is simple enough. Links on the FBI and DCWG site will 
allow users to be scanned for the malware automatically, and fixes are 
available for Windows systems down to and including XP. Security software 
vendors have had patches out almost since DNSChanger was detected, and have 
free tools available. The DCWG recommends using these multiple times to make 
sure any infection is stymied.

So who's going to be left looking at a dead connection on Monday? Security firm 
IID estimated last month that 12 per cent of the Fortune 500 firms and 4 per 
cent of "major" US government organizations still have machines infected with 
DNSChanger, although it noted things were improving rapidly.

No doubt many consumers will also add to those numbers, so expect a call from 
your aging relatives on Monday, asking why they can't make the internets work


from
Vanessa The Google Girl.
my skype name is rainbowstar123

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