Thousands May Lose Internet in July

My son sent me a link to an AP article, “Hundreds of thousands may lose Internet in July”

The article claimed that the FBI had been running an op that reroutes internet traffic through some of their servers, and that those servers will be turned down in July.  According to the article, people who have computers infected with a DNSChanger virus will lose Internet access when those servers go dark.

I didn’t trust the embedded link to a company I’ve never heard of, so I went to the FBI site and searched backward from there. It turns out, yes, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney has charged seven people with infecting millions of computers with malware that alters DNS addresses in order to reroute traffic through sites that generate ad revenue for the criminals.

“Six of the defendants, VLADIMIR TSASTSIN, 31, TIMUR GERASSIMENKO, 31, DMITRI JEGOROV, 33, VALERI ALEKSEJEV, 31, KONSTANTIN POLTEV, 28, and ANTON IVANOV, 26, all Estonian nationals, were arrested and taken into custody yesterday in Estonia by the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board. The U.S. Attorney’s Office will seek their extradition to the United States. The seventh defendant, ANDREY TAAME, 31, a Russian national, remains at large.”

“Manhattan U.S. Attorney PREET BHARARA said: ‘These defendants gave new meaning to the term, ‘false advertising.’ As alleged, they were international cyber bandits who hijacked millions of computers at will and re-routed them to Internet websites and advertisements of their own choosing—collecting millions in undeserved commissions for all the hijacked computer clicks and Internet ads they fraudulently engineered.’ “

The FBI had an operation running on this, “Operation Ghost Click,” and they have a lot of useful information about the DNS Changer malware, and a way to see if your machine has been hijacked.

DCWG also provides a tool to check your routing here.

While we’re talking about Internet security, Facebook does not allow you to see who’s viewing your profile, so don’t fall for this scam.