INTERNET DOOMSDAY JUST AROUND THE CORNER

For those of us who using PCs and Macs  -- like everybody --  July 9 is looming large if our computer happens to be infected with a strain of malware called DNS Changer.

According to PC World, “DNS Charger is a Trojan that surfaced in 2007 and infected millions of machines. The malware would redirect computers to hacker-created Websites, where cyber-criminals sold at least $14 million in advertisements. DNS Changer also prevented computers from updating or using anti-virus software, leaving them vulnerable to even more malicious software.”

The FBI has been warning users about it for quite some time. On July 9, the feds plan to “throw a switch that prevents infected computers from accessing the Internet.” That action, in turn, could make a “personal Internet doomsday” for infected users.

The so-called “clickjackers” were busted last November by the feds when they “arrested six Estonian nationals that allegedly ran the clickjacking fraud, and seized the rogue DNS servers where infected users were being redirected. The FBI has put up surrogate servers in place of the malicious ones, but only temporarily.”

So now the FBI is looking to shutdown the temporary servers, which means infected machines won’t be able to reach the Web since they won’t be able to redirect through the servers that no longer exist. Originally, they were going to turn off the malicious servers in March, but a federal judge blocked that action until July to allow users in the government and business more time to eliminate DNS Charger. Half of the Fortune 500 were impacted and even now, it is believed “350,000 devices are still infected.”

“To find out if you're infected,” PC World explained, “visit the DNS Charger Check-Up site (just a simple Google search) which checks the DNS resolution of your PC without installing any additional software.” If you are infected – End of days! End of Days! – the site lists anti-virus software to resolve the problem.