Posted on 04/21/2012 2:24:07 AM PDT by iowamark
For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.
Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.
The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.
Most victims 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 problems.
Last November, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a hacker ring that had been running an Internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers.
"We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because ... if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without Internet service," said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. "The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get 'page not found' and think the Internet is broken."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Not sure I want the gubmint “cleaning” my computer.
If Microsoft or McAfee warns me about something, I do what they say.
If a news wire service warns me.....
Hmmmm.
Ditto.
I’d rather hazard the hackers, thanks.
ping
bttt
I don’t use IE anyway.
Bump
I have Norton 360 running 24x7, and Malwarebytes scans 5x/week, so I’m not letting the gov’t inside my machines to drop cookies/trojans/keyloggers etc to keep an eye on me, thankyouverymuch. And IE is total crap - I use Opera v11.62 on Win7 Pro w/SP3 - so that’s not an option, either.
Anyone who lets the gov’t *scanner* inside, is asking for problems.
Which would you entrust your life? To the Government Weather service or a private one you know and trust?
Private weather services have beaten the Government ones for decades; the statistics prove it.
And when government gets things wrong, they get it REALLY REALLY WRONG.
IE: Some Bureaucrat DREAMS up a Test and/or a Solution to a Internet/Computer Virus and DOESN'T TEST IT OUT, DOESN'T THINK OF THE RAMIFICATIONS OF THE TEST and/or SOLUTION (Think Liberal/Progressive or RINO) and/or doesn't Think of a means to BACK IT OUT if it MESSES UP.
With Luck, their solution works. Usually, as with software not well thought out; IT JUST INCREASES PROBLEMS and MAKES MORE FOR THE FUTURE.
And worse than this, PEOPLE START DEPENDING ON THE GOVERNMENT AND NOT THINKING FOR THEMSELVES. So when the GOVERNMENT MISSES a Big Virus who do you blame and how quickly will it be solved - THINK SSLLLOOOOWWWWW!
DOH!
I went to your recommended site and sniffed around.
It is suspiciously like other commercial frauds that rope you you in, tell you how infected your computer is, and then demand payment immediately to fix it.
I would rather trust my Norton 360 and my Malwarebytes.
“I’m from the government and I’m here to help”..........uh huh, yeah right
I am lucky having Frontier Communications. (phone and Internet) For free, they furnish very sophisticated virus, firewall, spam and email protection programs that work 24/7 and does a great job of it.
I don’t run IE. And I don’t run Windows.
Running Xubuntu 11.04
Wife runs both. So I am stuck with maintaining it.
Ah yes, Reagan's famous "nine most dangerous words in the English language.
Also this: To err is human, but to really screw things up takes a federal agency!
The paranoia on this thread is astounding to me.
Running Malwarbytes 5 times a week? Really?
It won’t affect you because you don’t use IE? Really?
Windows 7 professional SP3? Really?
Trust Norton? Really?
LOL.
I don’t run any anti-virus, nor to do I scan my computer on any regular basis(yearly maybe, probably less). I won’t use IE and I do use Admuncher. I don’t run executables off the internet. My networks also run off of OpenDNS and I block .br .cn .in .info .ir .kr .kz .ro .ru .sa TLDs. My computers simply won’t resolve out to 75% of the worlds malware hosts. Sure, they could use IPs in their malware scripts but most use DNS and regularly change the host IP.
I have seen infections so thick on machines that you literally couldn’t do anything but click the “pay me” button and enter a credit card yet Norton Antivirus was sitting there fat and happy like it didn’t have a care in the world.
DCWG isn’t some organization that’s trying to rip you off. Sheesh, people.
Ping
Malwarebytes is the best, eh? It’s saved my behind many a time. Sadly, it’s mostly a threat from news sites!!!
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