This coming Monday hundreds of thousands of people could lose Internet access, if their computers are infected with malicious software from 2007.
Despite repeated alerts, the number of computers that probably are infected is more than 277,000 worldwide, down from about 360,000 in April.
Users whose computers are still infected Monday will lose their ability to go online, and they will have to call their tech support providers for help deleting the malware and reconnecting to the Internet.
The problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of more than 570,000 infected computers around the world. When the FBI went in to take down the hackers late last year, agents realized that if they turned off the malicious servers being used to control the computers, all the victims would lose their Internet service.
In an unusual move, the FBI set up a safety net. They brought in a private company to install two clean Internet servers to take over for the malicious servers so that people would not suddenly lose their Internet.
But that temporary system will be shut down at 12:01 a.m. EDT Monday, July 9.
To check whether your computer is infected, you can visit a website run by the group brought in by the FBI: http://www.dcwg.org.
The site includes links to respected commercial sites that will run a quick check on the computer, and it also lays out detailed instructions if users want to actually check the computer themselves.
Of course, you can always call us for help checking your machine to make sure that you are malware free.
Despite repeated alerts, the number of computers that probably are infected is more than 277,000 worldwide, down from about 360,000 in April.
Users whose computers are still infected Monday will lose their ability to go online, and they will have to call their tech support providers for help deleting the malware and reconnecting to the Internet.
The problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of more than 570,000 infected computers around the world. When the FBI went in to take down the hackers late last year, agents realized that if they turned off the malicious servers being used to control the computers, all the victims would lose their Internet service.
In an unusual move, the FBI set up a safety net. They brought in a private company to install two clean Internet servers to take over for the malicious servers so that people would not suddenly lose their Internet.
But that temporary system will be shut down at 12:01 a.m. EDT Monday, July 9.
To check whether your computer is infected, you can visit a website run by the group brought in by the FBI: http://www.dcwg.org.
The site includes links to respected commercial sites that will run a quick check on the computer, and it also lays out detailed instructions if users want to actually check the computer themselves.
Of course, you can always call us for help checking your machine to make sure that you are malware free.
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