If your computer is infected with DNS Changer, you may not even know it. But, you'll find out the hard way (if it is) on July 9th when you will no longer be able to connect to the internet.
The problem began when international hackers ran an onlline advertising scam that allowed them to take control of computers all over the world.
While the FBI was preparing to take down the ring causing the problem, they realized, just shutting things down would create a situation for those computers infected.
So, the FBI set up safety nets months ago using government computers so that infected computers would not loose internet connectivity. That safety net system is to be shut down on July 9, 2012
The FBI reports that 568,000 computers originally infected but the number now is down to about 360,000 with 80,000 of them in the US.
Most of the computers infected are in homes vs. businesses (where technology personnel routinely check computers).
There's a simple, pain-free way to check to see if your computer has been infected. The FBI is encouraging computer users to visit http://www.dcwg.org/ where checking your computer is as easy as a click. There are also instructions about how to clean up your computer if it is infected.
The FBI reports "Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems."
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