FBI: Hundreds Of Thousands May Lose Internet In July

[Aaltrude]

Lolita C. Baldor
04/20/2012
Huffington Post

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.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/hundreds-of-thousands-may-lose-internet-in-july_n_1441260.html

[Pattypans]

Am I the only one who thinks this seems creepy on more than one level?

[Islander]

No. At first I thought it was a hoax. I'm still not sure what to make of it. If so many were hacked, why wasn't this all over the news, so that the "infected" could get their systems cleaned? This is the first I've heard of it! Sounds really really weird...

[mellowsong]

I just did a search and apparently this article is on Associated Press, USA Today etc. I also found this on the actual FBI website: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/november/malware_110911
I ran that DNS changer detection and shows my system is clear.

[Islander]

From November 2011? Mellow, were the network stories that old as well, or is this just breaking now?

[mellowsong]

From November 2011? Mellow, were the network stories that old as well, or is this just breaking now? Apparently it just started breaking the end of March. I found no stories older than that except the actual FBI site. Not sure why this was kept under wraps for so long...but it does appear to be true.

[Islander]

Hahaha, my Mac is clean!

[bmc65]

I haven't read the article yet. But my first reaction when reading the title is, "what are they trying to scare us into doing now?"
Do you think if we/society has had enough scare tactics rammed down our throats, we may all just become numb and bored with it?

[Islander]

Scare tactics (Salmonella outbreaks, E. coli contamination, swine flu, bird flu, terrorists...) are all set up to prepare us for yet more fascist control. Little by little, we have given away our rights and our freedoms. When the tipping point comes, it need not be a big thing...just the straw that finally breaks the camel's back.

[Reesacat]

Yay my Mac is clean also! Thank you all for the information:)

[mellowsong]

Well, y'alls' Macs should be clean considering this is a Windows problem, lol...unless you're a Mac user using Windows.

[Islander]

I have the MS Office for Mac suite and sometimes receive MS docs from others. I should be safe because a Mac still can't process an .exe file. So, I'm just rubbing it in. Ha!

[Aaltrude]

I was seriously considering getting a MAC for my next computer but am having second thoughts now with all the information that is coming to the fore re the human abuses occurring in the production of Apple products.

Oh ... and my PC is in the clear.

[Islander]

Aaltrude, if you're referring to the working conditions on the factory floors, be advised that all technology products are assembled under the same conditions; Apple is the only one taking steps to remediate them.

[Jane Chitty]

This reminds me of that other scare thing about computers when we entered the new millennium - can't remember what it was called - and how it just completely fizzled out into nothing.

[Islander]

You're probably thinking of Y2K.

[StephenX]

Scare tactics (Salmonella outbreaks, E. coli contamination, swine flu, bird flu, terrorists...) are all set up to prepare us for yet more fascist control. Little by little, we have given away our rights and our freedoms. When the tipping point comes, it need not be a big thing...just the straw that finally breaks the camel's back.

Scare tactics? How about the movie "Reefer Madness? It started the "war on drugs" (cost a trillion dollars and rising; and destroyed the 4th amendment of the US constitution. By the way, my 7 year old desktop (right up there with the stone tipped spear) is clear of this new virus. I have my security so cranked up that I cannot even add pictures to my album of edible mushrooms. Trade offs!