To all the PC users: You are at risk of losing your net connection in July...

Originally published Friday, April 20, 2012 at 11:07 AM

Hundreds of thousands may lose Internet in July

For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.
LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press

"The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://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."

"This is what happened:
Hackers infected a network of probably more than 570,000 computers worldwide. They took advantage of vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows operating system to install malicious software on the victim computers. This turned off antivirus updates and changed the way the computers reconcile website addresses behind the scenes on the Internet's domain name system.
The DNS system is a network of servers that translates a web address - such as www.ap.org- into the numerical addresses that computers use. Victim computers were reprogrammed to use rogue DNS servers owned by the attackers. This allowed the attackers to redirect computers to fraudulent versions of any website."

I personally pointed out that this was targeted specifically at you Windows users by exploiting your choice of OS. This is just something you must deal with more than Linux/OS X and other Operating System distributions. The DCWG claims that OS X may have been effected but I came up clean.

I am encouraging everyone to run this check and if infected, please have a skilled trustworthy individual follow the instructions to repair your computer. If you aren't tech savvy or capable of following the directions given by the site, do not try this yourself. My only warning to you.

I had to take a stab at Mi¢ro$oft, I enjoy my 360 but I am not a fan. I am not trying to instate a flame war... Blind dedication to a specific brand is stupid. Please take that type of discussion to your local park and fight it out there....

My Win 7 system is NOT infected according to the site.

Thanks for the warning. Ill tell my friends.

Um and what you mean with "infected"?

My laptop is safe. Now I need to go test my desktop.

YES!!! Im green!

I read about this about 2 weeks ago and im not infected xD

I pooped myself as i read the article but my pc is green!

ok so I did it and I'm "green"

... did anyone else think "I wonder if this is a secret plot by the FBI to install secret undetectable tracking gear on our computers when we go to the site.

I'm not usually a conspiracy theorist - and I don't really believe this but it made me chuckle.

My first thought when I saw this was "Oh, another hoax..." But then I looked it up on the Sophos site, and sure enough, it seems like it's true.

I'd suggest searching Sophos.com for "DNS changer" for more info if you're interested. They seem to have a good amount of information about this (I mean I'd hope so given that that's what they do...).

Mw3

So all type of computers are going to be attacked?

Yes, it is an exploit in Windows OS but it is capable of effecting other systems as well..
OS X and Linux were not mentioned in the exploit list but it is still a potential exploit with browsers as well.

Windows 8: Uninfected

Does the test account for RAT virus's? Cause it showed up green for me and I have signs of an RAT virus........

greeeen

YAY!!! This is great news, at least for me.

I started a "discussion" thread for you guys who ignored my request to visit your local park to bash the OS you don't prefer...

http://empireminecraft.com/threads/...rogrammed-and-supported-windows-twitch1.8262/

Enjoy it. I have used Windows and OS X and dabbled lightly in Linux. I do not speak from an uninformed ignorant standpoint.
After a few minutes of scouring the internet, all I could find was one example of successful OS X exploitation and the largest collection of ignorance I have ever seen.
All of the articles were from biased "reporters" who took the opportunity to take a stab at Apple for what was the only recorded Apple Software exploit to date.

Blatantly posting from a biased standpoint makes me angry.
The only exploit that has successfully effected the Mac was through social engineering whereas exploiting a Windows machine does not consistently require any effort from the user...

Green

In the green!