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DNSChanger Shut-Down Means Internet Blackout Coming For Hundreds of Thousands

Posted by timothy on from the are-you-on-the-list dept.

Since you're reading this here, you're probably already aware that in the early hours of Monday, lots of DNS calls are going to fail as the FBI turns off servers from which Windows machines infected with DNSChanger have been served. New submitter SuperCharlie adds a reminder of the impending shutdown, and adds: "The FBI has a step-by-step method for you to see if you are infected in this PDF document, or you can go to dcwg.org for an automated check if you are so inclined."

4 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Or... by Johnny+O · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://techland.time.com/2012/04/23/dnschanger-fbi-warns-infected-computers-will-lose-web-email-access-in-july/

    "DNSChanger targets Windows or Mac systems (Linux, iOS and Android users are in the clear) by manipulating Domain Name Servers (DNS), which translate syntax-based URLs into IP addresses. "

  2. Re:Or... by qwertphobia · · Score: 5, Informative

    What was ignorant about my comment?

    It is fact that DNSChanger does not infect OSX. It doesn't infect iOS. It doesn't infect Linux, or BSD, or Amiga, or Android, or BeOS, or Plan 9, or Chromium, or OS2, or Solaris, or EMACS. I happen to be running one of the many OSs it does not infect.

    Seriously? https://www.google.com/search?q=dnschanger+osx

    --
    Never ask for directions from a two-headed tourist! -Big Bird
  3. Security Awareness Fail by zedrdave · · Score: 5, Informative

    "dcwg.org"? seriously?

    Let me get this straight: the FBI is recommending people go to a nondescript .org website to run a security check on their computer?

    Can I next invite them to go to submit their information at fswrxt.net to check that their credit card wasn't hacked?

  4. Re:Or... by wkcole · · Score: 5, Informative

    Simply false. DNSChanger can infect Windows, MacOS, and many consumer-grade routers that provide DNS or DHCP.

    What's special about MacOS infections is that the user has to be an ignorant pollyanna to get infected. If I were you, I'd check my DNS config.