IS THE FBI SHUTTING DOWN THE INTERNET TOMORROW?

“FBI plans to shut Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which are possible malware sources or containing Trojans. Millions of computer users across the globe could be blocked off from the Internet as early as March 8.”

Thus began a story in the National Turk, an English language newspaper published in, well, obviously, Turkey.

And gee whiz, March 8 is tomorrow!

Billing it as “Internet Doomsday,” according to the National Turk, last November the FBI, working with authorities in Estonia, thwarted a criminal enterprise by turning off a network that Estonian gangsters/hackers used to dispatch a vicious Trojan virus that “redirects computers from legitimate online destinations to phony websites that launch online ads that generated revenue for the hackers.” Apparently the effort resulted in the arrest of six cyber-criminals.

Writing in PC World, Christina DesMarais dispels the panic: “Like many memes before it, this dire warning is floating around blogs and sites. It even names a date: March 8 as the day the FBI might ‘shut down the Internet.’”

As DesMarais points out, if the Internet is shutdown for any significant number of people, it won’t be the work of the FBI, but cyber-hackers and pirates.

She further explains: “If people end up in the dark on March 8, it’s because they’re still infected with the malware the FBI started warning people about last November when it shut down a long-standing Estonian Web traffic hijacking operation that controlled people’s computers using a family of DNSChanger viruses. The malware works by replacing the DNS (Domain Name System) servers defined on a victim's computer with fraudulent servers operated by the criminals. As a result, visitors are unknowingly redirected to websites that distributed fraudulent software or displayed ads that put money into the bad guys’ pockets.”

The reason I mention all of this is because it is exactly the kind of panicky nonsense we can expect during the coming year. By the time we hit December, a little ol’ panic about the Internet shutting down will be insignificant. The True Believers (idiots/morons) will surely be out in force doing what True Believers (idiots/morons) do whenever Armageddon approaches.

And I’m not sure if that is a prediction or a promise; maybe a little of both.