Public relations propaganda to make the FBI look good.
"Malware may knock thousands off Internet on Monday" by Lolita C. Baldor | Associated Press, July 06, 2012
WASHINGTON — Despite repeated alerts, tens of thousands of Americans may lose their Internet service Monday unless they do a quick check of their computers for malware that could have taken over their machines more than a year ago.
Did your computer catch fire?
Warnings about the Internet problem have been splashed across Facebook and Google. Internet service providers have sent notices, and the FBI has set up a special website.
According to the FBI, the number of computers that probably are infected is more than 277,000 worldwide, down from about 360,000 in April. About 64,000 infected computers are probably in the United States.
About 25,000 of the computers initially affected by the malware were in Canada, but now only about 7,000 machines remain infected there, said a spokesman for the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Mark Buell.
He said that his organization, together with Public Safety Canada and the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission, has developed a website where computer users can check their computers for the malware.
People whose computers are still infected on Monday will lose their ability to go online and will have to call their service providers for help in deleting the malware and reconnecting to the Internet.
The problem began when international hackers ran an advertising scam to take control of more than 570,000 computers around the world. When the FBI went in to take down the hackers late last year, agents realized that if they turned off the malicious servers being used to control the computers, all the victims would lose their Internet service.
In a highly unusual move, the FBI set up a safety net. The bureau brought in a private company to install two clean Internet servers to take over for the malicious servers so that people would not lose Internet service. The temporary Internet system that was set up will be shut down at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on Monday.
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Most victims do not know their computers have been infected. But social networking sites and Internet providers have gotten more involved, reaching out to computer users to warn of the problem.
Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent, said many Internet providers are ready for the problem and have plans to try to help their customers. If the providers correct the server problem, the Internet will work, but the malware will remain on victims’ computers and could pose future problems.
Both Facebook and Google created warning messages that show up if someone using either site appears to have an infected computer. Facebook users get a message that says, “Your computer or network might be infected,” along with a link for more information. Google users get a similar message, displayed at the top of a search results page.
To check whether a computer is infected, users can visit www.dcwg.org, which includes links to respected sites that will run a check on the computer, It lays out detailed instructions if users want to check the computer themselves.
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"Malware computer help still available" by Lolita C. Baldor | Associated Press, July 09, 2012
WASHINGTON — Internet users scanning their Twitter feeds or Facebook accounts might want to add one more quick click to check their computer for malware.
Thousands of people around the country whose computers were infected with malicious software more than a year ago faced the possibility of not being able to get online after midnight Sunday EDT.
Being online is nice because I find out what is really happening in the world; however, even without it I can see through the AmeriKan media code.
At 12:01 a.m. Monday, the FBI planned to shut down the Internet servers set up as a temporary safety net to keep infected computers online for the past eight months. The court order the agency obtained to keep the servers running expired, and it was not renewed.
The problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of more than 570,000 infected computers around the world. When the FBI went in to take down the hackers late last year, agents realized that if they turned off the malicious servers being used to control the computers, all the victims would lose their Internet service.
In a highly unusual move, the FBI set up the safety net. The bureau brought in a private company to install two clean Internet servers to take over for the malicious servers so that people would not suddenly lose their Internet.
Those last two paragraphs looked awfully familiar.
The FBI arranged for a private company to run a website — http://www.dcwg.org — as a place where computer users could go to see if their computer was infected and find links to other computer security business sites where they could find fixes for the problem.
From the onset, most victims didn’t even know their computers were infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their Web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.
Many computer users do not understand the complex machines they use every day to send e-mail, shop, and cruise for information. The cyberworld of viruses, malware, bank fraud, and Internet scams is often distant and confusing, and warning messages may go unseen or unheeded.
Also, some people simply do not trust the government and believe that federal authorities are only trying to spy on them or take over the Internet.
I think you found one of them, readers.
Blogs and other Internet forums are riddled with postings warning of the government using the malware as a ploy to breach American citizens’ computers. That is a charge the FBI and other cybersecurity specialists quickly denounce as ridiculous....
That's what lends the charge credibility.
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Related: Malware threat fizzles as FBI shuts down servers
Also see: Reward offered for info on Conn. bank robbers
