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Just like everybody else.

Posted 5 months ago by ArtOfHands RoboGirl | Permalink

### Replies

- Snopes is a good site, and definitely valuable in such a case as this. You'll only lose access to the internet if you're already infected.
  Posted 5 months ago by Genki-baba | Permalink
- Thanks for the heads up. Thankfully our computers are clean :)
  Posted 5 months ago by Kittn | Permalink
- Someone infected with DNSChanger (which is fairly old) is quite likely to be infected with other malware as well. Perhaps being disconnected from the Internet is a good wake-up call for them to have their computers seen to.
  Posted 5 months ago by Fritzl | Permalink
- The FBI is not disconnecting you from the internet.
  They have, for the past several years, helped people who are infected with that virus to check their machines and remove the virus.
  Posted 5 months ago by WindBorn | Permalink
- Correction: this post has some misleading and incorrect information. While there really is a computer virus, the FBI *won't* check your computer for this virus. That's an impossible endeavor with the number of connected computers on the Internet. Also, the virus doesn't "goes off" on Monday.
  Here's what's actually going on: the virus redirects your computer to a DNS server (this is the server that tells your computer where to go when you try to access an address like Glitch.com) ran by the virus's creators for malicious purposes. So if you type in Glitch.com, the virus creators could instead send you to a fake Glitch.com ran by them, for example. However, the FBI seized this server. But if they turn it off, infected people won't be able to access the Internet since their computers won't be able to find any sites. So, instead, they've been running a clean DNS server for the benefit of those infected while they try to get the information out about this virus and how to remove it.
  But the FBI won't be running this server forever. On July 9th, they will turn it off, and then infected computers will be pointed to a DNS server that doesn't exist, so there'll be nowhere for them to get their information about where to find sites like Glitch.com, and so their Internet will effectively cease to work. That's what this alert's about.
  Posted 5 months ago by Kaja Rainbow | Permalink
- Was just going to say that, Kaja - that's what I read earlier, too. I like the way you explain it!
  I mean, I'm not even an American, and I certainly hope that the FBI wouldn't have the right to search my computer, as the OP and some things I've read in other forums suggest.
  Posted 5 months ago by Not a Princess | Permalink
- Hooray, I'm good!
  Posted 5 months ago by railroadbaron | Permalink
- i thought this was last monday, 7-2??
  Posted 5 months ago by little peep | Permalink
- clean
  Posted 5 months ago by Gordon Lughsen | Permalink
- @Not a Princess:
  It's not so much that they are checking your computer as it is the website aforementioned (dns-ok.us, which is controlled by the Internet Systems Consortium, not the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation) simply looks at the way you got there to figure out if you need to go through Door number 1 (Clean!) or Door number 2 (Hijacked!).
  @*:
  I'd rather have pointed people to the DCWG page here: http://www.dcwg.org/ to skip all the spin that gets added to a Public Relations article.
  I'm going to go hunker down in a bunker here and get ready to take calls tomorrow from wonderful people who would rather live with a malware infection on their system than clean it off because it's too hard to do.
  Posted 5 months ago by Xial | Permalink
- Saw this information on the Toronto News station last night. I ran the self check just now and got the green light. Thanks for the reminder to check. Good luck all!
  Posted 5 months ago by Breezy Meadow | Permalink
- Thanks for posting the clarifications Kaja Rainbow and Xial. Yea, the PR spin is pretty outrageous right now...almost as bad as watching 24 and thinking it's reality TV.
  Posted 5 months ago by b3achy | Permalink
- Xial, I understand what has happened (and I've already confirmed weeks ago that I'm not infected) - it's merely that the post sounds as if the FBI actively searches people's computers and then disconnects them from the internet (presumably by targetting each individual user), which is clearly not what is happening - if things were as they were presented in the post, I'd be about as worried about the FBI's actions as about the infection itself.
  Posted 5 months ago by Not a Princess | Permalink
- f
  Posted 5 months ago by ArtOfHands RoboGirl | Permalink
- u
  Posted 5 months ago by ArtOfHands RoboGirl | Permalink
- Are we getting fries or not? Im hungry again
  Also, if you want some free anti-virus/firewall all in one link over to Comodo.com and use their internet security package, it works well and its f-r-e-e.
  Turn off computer, use bathroom, get back online, install Comodo's software package(s), boot kids off computer.
  Sip lemonade, rock in rocker on porch. Light cigar.
  Posted 5 months ago by ☣ elf ☣ | Permalink
- Gee. Chill out. There was no "critical nastiness", none whatsoever: there were people correcting the article / clarifying what is actually going on. More and correct info is good, no?
  The people that will be affected by this are affected by this because they listened to a webpage telling them "you're computer is infected, click here to clean up". The best action towards those people is not "omfg the FBI might shut your internet down: click here to fix it", because that's what ever fake virus warning does. The best action is give clear and detailed info on what's going on: yet you get offended that people dared give that info as a supplement to your warning.
  *edited*
  Posted 5 months ago by San Serif | Permalink
- all
  Posted 5 months ago by ArtOfHands RoboGirl | Permalink
- me? i has cigar.
  Posted 5 months ago by ☣ elf ☣ | Permalink
- What did people do to help? What did people do to not help? What part of what people have said in here is not helpful? (or less helpful than posting a link to a "fricking article")
  Posted 5 months ago by San Serif | Permalink
- And now you're being rude. Any help you might have been giving has now been deleted. Learn to take criticism and realise that people are JUST TRYING TO HELP. It's not a personal attack.
  Man, people get their knickers in a twist over tiny things. No one was even rude until you gave that smiletastic post with all the 'DON'T GIVE ME CRAP' littered through it. Now who's being unhelpful?
  Posted 5 months ago by Saiai | Permalink
- (Also very childish to edit away all your comments on people's supposed lack of being helpful and changing those comments into 'f u all' (or whatever you change it into later)).
  Posted 5 months ago by San Serif | Permalink