If you can’t get online as you start your day, your computer just might be infected with a malware, called DNS changer. Information Security Instructor at Madison College (MATC) Mike Masino says federal officials have been warning computer users about the malicious trojan for well over a year. “The ones who have read and heard about it have probably done something about it … checked if they were infected with it. The ones who haven’t will just … they’ll try to log in and it just won’t work.”
If you can’t connect, you’ll have to contact your Internet service provider. Aside from the small inconvenience of getting back online, Masino says there’s no harm done because the FBI prevented that from happening by tracking the source of the malware, arresting the cyber criminals, and maintaining temporary servers. “Their service will be down for a while, but it’s not like the actual malware is gonna get worse. All the FBI is doing is shutting off their temporary Internet phone book from (users).”
Masino says there was plenty of time to detect and rectify this problem, so he’s guessing that in the end, the problem won’t be as bad as it could have been.
Cyber criminals were accused of spreading a trojan, whose purpose was to redirect traffic from legitimate websites to malicious locations. Federal officials stepped in to redirect Internet traffic to temporary servers after shutting down the cyber criminals.
AUDIO: Jackie Johnson 1:40