Potential March 8 ‘Internet Doomsday’ Avoided For Now

(Editor’s note: Update to post published here)

Time for some follow-up posts this morning. Who remembers when I blogged about a number of Americans possibly not being able to access the Internet tomorrow, March 8? I wrote on February 16:

This afternoon I came across a piece that’s being featured on Yahoo! which explains what this is all about. From Steve Huff on the Betabeat website today:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation may yank several crucial domain name servers (DNS) offline on March 8, blocking millions from using the Internet. The servers in the FBI’s crosshairs were installed in 2011 to deal with a nasty worm dubbed DNSChanger Trojan. DNSChanger can get an innocent end-user in trouble; it changes an infected system’s DNS settings to shunt Web traffic to unwanted and possibly even illegal sites.

DNSChanger oozed out of Estonia and may have fouled up as many as a half-million computers in the United States. The feds’ temporary fix to keep the worm from propagating was to replace infected servers with clean surrogates.

(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)

Well, it looks like a potential “Internet Doomsday” has been avoided- for now. Fahmida Rashid wrote this morning on the PC Magazine website:

A federal judge has given users infected with DNSChanger a four-month extension to get clean.

The FBI-controlled DNS servers that replaced the malicious servers will not shut down on March 8 as previously announced. But nearly half a million computers are still at risk for losing Internet connectivity when the new deadline rolls around in July…

The new deadline for getting cleaned up and averting the Internet blackout is now July 9. Users should immediately check their computers if they haven’t already done so.

(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)

The article (located on PCMag.com here) contains the latest information on detecting and removing this Trojan.

I’ll make a note on my calendar in early July to see what sort of progress has been made in averting this potential Internet blackout.

(Editor’s note: The author disclaims any personal liability, loss, or risk incurred as a consequence of the use and application, either directly or indirectly, of any information presented herein.)

Source:

Rashid, Fahmida Y. “Avoid Internet Doomsday: Check for DNSChanger Malware Now.” PC Magazine. 7 Mar. 2012. (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401227,00.asp). 7 Mar. 2012.