From the El Paso Times: For
computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between
staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.
Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers
ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers
around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety
net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet
disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut
down.
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.
Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected,
although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing
and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more
vulnerable to other problems.
Last November, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take
down a hacker ring that had been running an Internet ad scam on a
massive network of infected computers....
When the FBI and others arrested six Estonians last November, the
agency replaced the rogue servers with Vixie's clean ones. Installing
and running the two substitute servers for eight months is costing the
federal government about $87,000.
The number of victims is hard to pinpoint, but the FBI believes that on
the day of the arrests, at least 568,000 unique Internet addresses were
using the rogue servers. Five months later, FBI estimates that the
number is down to at least 360,000. The U.S. has the most, about
85,000, federal authorities said. Other countries with more than 20,000
each include Italy, India, England and Germany. Smaller numbers are
online in Spain, France, Canada, China and Mexico.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_20443599/hundreds-thousands-worldwide-may-lose-internet-july?source=most_viewed
I ran the program and it took literally a second to do. I just hope they accurate.
Sunrise, 6:38... Rainwalk, 12:24...
8 hours ago
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