Hundreds of thousands of people could lose Internet in July

Hundreds of thousands of people could lose Internet in July

22nd April 2012

Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -. For computer users, just a few clicks, the difference between staying on the line and lose connections to the Internet this summer mean

Unknown, most of them started their problems, if the international hackers, online advertising is a published scam has control over infected computers around the world. Created

take in a very specific response, the FBI has to avoid a safety net in months with the government computers malfunction of Internet services for infected users. But this system must be shut down.

The FBI is encouraging users to a website of its partners for security, www.dcwg.org operated to notify you when you were visiting infected and explain how to solve the problem. After 9 July infected users will not be able to connect to the Internet.

Most victims do not even know their computers have been infected, even if the malware has probably slowed and Web-browsing disable your anti-virus software to their machines vulnerable to other problems.

In November last year, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a ring of hackers that a program is running, an Internet fraud in a network of infected computers.

“We began to realize that we are a little” have a problem on our hands, because … be if we simply pulled the plug, it s infrastructure in all criminal and tossed in prison, the victim would have been without the internet service, “said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special.” The average user can get Internet Explorer and open ” has page not found “and I think the Internet is broken.”

The night of the arrests, the agency in Paul Vixie, president and founder brought by Internet Systems Consortium, to install two web servers to the place of truck with rogue servers confiscated, that infected computers used. were

Federal officials want to take full, to allow their online servers, to March, everyone to clean their computer. But it was not enough time. A federal judge in New York has extended the deadline until July.

Well, Grasso said, “the press plenary session is to get people to solve this problem.” And it is for computer users to control PC

This is what happens.

hackers probably infected a network of more than 570,000 computers around the world you used the Microsoft Windows operating system vulnerabilities to install malicious software on victim computers this from anti-virus.. updates and has changed the way in which computers connect Web site addresses behind the scenes over the Internet Domain Name System.

The DNS system is a network of servers that translate a web address of numerical addresses use the computer. victim’s computer was reprogrammed to take advantage of one rogue DNS server of the attacker. This has allowed hackers to abuse computers to redirect fraudulent versions of each site.

Hacker earned profits from the Advertising on websites victims have been duped to visit. The hacker scam netted at least $ 14 million, according to the FBI. And even thousands of computers that depend on rogue servers for their web surfing.

If the FBI six Estonians and others arrested in November last year, the age ncy replaced with clean ones rogue server Vixie. installation and replacement of two servers running for eight months, the federal government will cost about $ 87,000.

The number of victims is hard to find, but the FBI believes that the day of the arrests, at least 568 000 Internet addresses have only later with the rogue server. five months, the FBI estimates that the number of up to at least 360,000. have the United States Most, about 85,000, said federal authorities.

Other countries with more than 20,000 individual Italy, India, England and Germany are. Smaller numbers are in Spain, France, Canada, China and Mexico online.

Vixie said, that the most likely victims of single home users, as the technology companies that have employees that it said routine check-computers.

FBI officials, they held a unique system to any form of government intervention in the To avoid personal computer or the Internet. And while this is the first time that the FBI was used, not the last.

“This is the future of what we do,” said Eric Power, a cyber Division Head of Unit FBI. “Until there be a change in the legal system, both within and outside the United States, with the cyber-problem, we go down this path, bulldozers, if you will, in this type of investigation. “

Now, he said, every time that the agency has almost the end of a case of cyber,” you get to the point where we say, because we intend to do so, as we can clean the system “without a greater chaos than before.

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