Computer malware in its various forms are serious threats to businesses and individuals.  The costs to mitigate these threats has unfortunately become a routine part of doing business in the 21st Century.  Many cases of malware and computer viruses actually use your computer as a launch point to to commit real crimes. The FBI states that hundreds of thousands of people will likely lose the ability to surf the web if they have a particular piece of malware.  Is your computer already infected?

The malware is named "DNSChanger" and has been around for a few years, infiltrating millions of computers. DNSChanger does just what it's name suggests; it changes your computer's DNS, and redirects it to another server. DNS (Domain Name System) is what controls where your web browser goes when you type in a web page address. It's what tells your computer that typing in Facebook.com should take you to Facebook's servers, and that Google.com takes you to the search engine page. If your computer is infected with DNSChanger, the malicious software will redirect you to a fake Facebook.com and Google.com webpage.  This is the dangerous part.  How would you know that you are browsing a fake web page.  If you didn't realize what happened and filled out a form with some of your information, you would be sending this , not to Facebook, but perhaps a criminal organization operating out of Hong Kong or perhaps Mexico.

According to the FBI, millions of computers have been hijacked since 2007. Last year the FBI seized the servers but since so many users connected to the rogue servers in order to surf the web, the FBI converted them to safe DNS servers. However, in July of 2012, the FBI plans to shut them down, meaning anyone infected with the DNSChanger malware will lose the ability to surf the web.

It will be very important for users to remove the infection if they have it to ensure that after July 8th they will still have access to the Internet. If you aren't sure about your security, contact BrightWire Networks at 360-528-6017.