Saturday, April 21, 2012

FBI to Turn Off Internet for Some Users

I don't normally do newsy posts; however, in this case it may be warranted. In the Tampa Tribune this a.m. is an article about a hacker ring that the FBI and similar organizations in other countries have broken up: Many in danger of losing the Internet. When I googled to get the address for this link, the entries for newspapers were all over the map. So this problem is being widely reported.

The upshot of the article is that 570,000 computers world-wide have been infected with a virus. The virus causes the presentation of an alternate version of the Internet and inexperienced users can't tell the difference...could be it's good enough that even experienced users don't notice either. Seems the FBI has set up a program that will not allow infected computers to reach the Internet after 9 July 2012. An error page (404 Page not found...a very common error) will appear and the owner of the computer won't know what's up.

The FBI has also set up a website that allows you to check your computer to confirm that it hasn't been infected. I've checked my PC and laptop. It's easy enough to do for even the inexperienced user and perhaps worth ten minutes of your time to confirm that you're not one of the poor souls who has been hacked.

Here's the link to the article again: Many in danger of losing the Internet.

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