What is the threat?

In 2007, a trojan horse computer virus called DNSchanger surfaced on the Internet. Infected computers had all of their Internet traffic redirected through specific Internet servers run by criminals.

These criminals then served up to $14-million worth of advertisements to these infected computers, according to PCWorld. However, that all ended when the culprits were caught in a November 2011 FBI sting called “Operation Ghost Click.”

When is the FBI pulling the plug?

The temporary system will be shut down at 12:01 a.m. EDT Monday, July 9. When it’s shut down, infected computers will not be able to access the Internet.

How do I know if I’m affected?

Most victims don’t even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software has likely slowed their Web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems. However, there’s an easy way to check if you’re infected: Just go to http://www.dns-ok.ca/. For detailed information about the infection and what to do to get rid of it, you can go to DCWG (DNSchanger Working Group).

Additionally, both Facebook and Google created their own warning messages that showed up if someone using either site appeared to have an infected computer. Facebook users would get a message that says, “Your computer or network might be infected,” along with a link that users can click for more information. Google users got a similar message, displayed at the top of a Google search results page. It also provides information on correcting the problem.

Read more about today’s malware threat here