Infected PCs to lose Internet this July?

Staying connected to the Internet has more or less become the norm for just about anyone, regardless of their age group. Well, there are savvy users and less than bright bulbs in the house, so the latter might just cause a virus infection or open the door for a trojan to reside on your computer. Having said that, the FBI is encouraging users to visit a particular website which is run by their security partner, http://www.dcwg.org, where this site will detect whether your machine is infected, and if you are, don’t go around losing your head just yet. There are instructions on how to fix this issue, otherwise by the time July 9 rolls around, chances are your infected machine will be unable to go online.

Most victims are unaware that their computers have been infected (Which is natural, achieving the ends of people with malicious intent). The FBI as well as other relevant authorities have been working together since last November to take down a hacker ring which had been propogating an Internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers, and while taking this hacker ring down is a good thing, the potential backlash from computer users who have had their machines infected might be a black eye in terms of PR for enforcement agencies, hence this early attempt to educate computer users as well as raise the awareness levels.

It is estimated that around 570,000 computers worldwide have been infected, and these are Windows powered machines, so if you are running on a Mac, you’re safe.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: virus