International hackers ran advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning web users worldwide that they may lose access to the internet this July after a massive hackers’ advertising scam infected and then took control of at least 550,000 computers.
A safety net has been set up by the FBI to prevent disruptions in these computers, according to news at the Daily Mail.
The FBI, however, wants computer users to visit a website run by its security partner, www.dcwg.org, which will inform potential victims on whether they are infected and then explain how to fix the problem, according to a story in SF Gate. The malicious software probably has managed to slow a victim’s web surfing, so that may be one good indicator symptom. Also disabled antivirus software, which would make computers much more vulnerable to other problems, could be a symptom. But after July 9, the infected users who did not fix the problem will not be able to even connect to the Internet.
Tom Grasso, FBI special agent, stated if the agency just pulled the plug on the criminals’ infrastructure and threw everybody in jail then “… the victims of this were going to be without Internet service.” So on the very night of the arrests, the FBI brought in Paul Vixie, founder of Internet Systems Consortium, just to install two Internet servers to take the place of the impounded rogue servers that infected computers were using. Federal officials will keep their servers online until July, so computer users can check their PCs.
BACKGROUND: On November 8, the FBI, the NASA-OIG and Estonian police arrested cyber criminals in “Operation Ghost Click,” says DCWG. The criminals operated under company name “Rove Digital,” distributing DNS changing viruses, known as TDSS, Alureon, TidServ or TDL4 viruses.
FBI DNS malware info: FBI.
