Who Remembers This ?

[humble3d]

Who Remembers This ?

Sources mysteriously vanished...

FBI could take down Internet for millions on March 8

By Andrew Couts | Digital Trends –

The Federal Bureau of Investigation

may soon be forced to shut down a number of key Domain Name System (DNS) servers, which would cut Internet access for millions of Web users around the world, reports BetaBeat.

http://www.betabeat.com/2012/02/15/fbi-could-pull-the-plug-on-millions-of-internet-users-march-8/

The DNS servers were installed by the FBI last year, in an effort to stop the spread of a piece of malware known as DNSCharger Trojan. But the court order that allowed the set up of the replacement servers expires on March 8.

In November of last year, authorities arrested six men in Estonia for the creation and spread of DNSCharger, which reconfigures infected computers’ Internet settings, and re-routes users to websites that contain malware, or other illegal sites. DNSCharger also blocks access to websites that might offer solutions for how to rid the computer of its worm, and often comes bundled with other types of malicious software.

By the time the FBI stepped in, DNSCharger had taken over computers in more than 100 countries, including half-a-million computers in the US alone. To help eradicate the widespread malware, the FBI replaced infected servers with new, clean servers, which gave companies and individuals with infected computers time to clean DNSCharger off their machines.

Unfortunately, DNSCharger is still running on computers “at half of the Fortune 500 companies,” and at “27 out of 55 major government entities,” reports cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs.

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/02/half-of-fortune-500s-us-govt-still-infected-with-dnschanger-trojan/

These computers rely on the FBI-installed DNS servers to access the Web. But if the court order is not extended, the FBI will be legally required to remove the clean servers, which would cut off the Internet for users still infected with DNSCharger.

Companies or other agencies that are unsure whether their systems are infected with DNSCharger can get free assistance here.

http://dcwg.org/cleanup.html

And private users can find out if they are infected using instructions provided here.

http://dcwg.org/checkup.html

[steven36]

yes I remember this but this is very old news and they ended up getting the deadline extended .

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Due to concerns by FBI agents that users still infected by DNSChanger could lose Internet access if the rogue DNS servers were shut down entirely, a temporary court order was obtained to allow the Internet Systems Consortium to operate replacement servers, which would serve DNS requests from those who had not yet removed the infection, and to collect information on those still infected in order to promptly notify them about the presence of the malware. While the court order was set to expire on March 8, 2012, an extension was granted until July 9, 2012 due to concerns that there were still many infected computers. F-Secure estimated on July 4, 2012 that at least 300,000 computers were still infected with the DNSChanger malware, 70,000 of which were located in the United States. ^[5] The interim DNS servers were officially shut down by the FBI on July 9, 2012.

​^{​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNSChanger}

^{​ :P}

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