Internet Blackout In Many Countries Coming July 2012 Is A Possibility, According To FBI

An Internet blackout in many countries coming around July of 2012 is a possibility, according to a report. That means Internet will be shut down in some areas of the world and many people won't be able to surf the Web.

The Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) says it's time for PC and Mac users to check on their computers as it may be infected with an unusual virus perpetrated by six Estonians arrested by the bureau in November of last year.

According to a new report, hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide are infected by the DNS Changer malware and millions of people will possibly be unable to surf the Web after July 9, 2012.

The said malware changes a user's domain name system (DNS) settings, diverting all Web requests through servers that the FBI seized in November, but has been temporarily maintaining to ensure internet services were not disrupted. This maintenance will finish in July 9, meaning computers still infected will face internet troubles. 

The common ways by which this type of malware enter your computer system is through opening malicious attachments in emails and visiting suspect websites through links included in an email.

Many people don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other phishing problems.

Hackers earned profits from advertisements that appeared on websites that victims were tricked into visiting. The scam netted the hackers at least 14 million dollars, according to the FBI. It also made thousands of computers reliant on the rogue servers for their internet browsing.

The Internet Service Providers (ISP) below have created pages on their sites that will help consumers detect and clean up DNS Changer from their computer systems:

• AT&T
• Comcast
• Verizon
• Cox
• CenturyLink
• Bell Canada

Furthermore, the following is a list of all easy "are you infected" sites with links to the security organizations who are maintaining the sites. Each sites has instructions in their local languages on the next steps to clean up possible infections.

• www.dns-ok.us
• www.dns-ok.de
• www.dns-ok.fi
• www.dns-ok.ax
• www.dns-ok.be
• www.dns-ok.fr
• www.dns-ok.ca
• www.dns-ok.lu
• www.dns-ok.nl
• dns-ok.gov.au
• dns-changer.eu

Hackers infected a network of probably more than 570,000 computers worldwide, according to the FBI.

The countries that are most likely to be affected by the internet blackout include the United States, England, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Spain, Mexico, China and India.