WHAT? Oh, stupid alarmist headline writers.
The FBI is NOT shutting off anyone's internet connection. The "DNS Changer" Trojan goes into your system settings and modifies your DNS settings to connect with a server operated by the BadGuys any time you enter a web page. (this is bad) The BadGuys have been caught and the FBI has been operating the BadDNS servers as legitimate DNS points under the provisions of a court order. (this is good) The court order will expire on March 8th and the FBI will no longer be able to provide DNS servers at the address used by people who are still infected by the trojan. So your DNS lookups will fire off into the ether and never get a response.
Gizmodo:The FBI has a court order allowing it to set up temporary replacement DNS servers so that those with infected computers or networks can get the worm off of their systems. The court order, however, expires on March 8th. Unless that order gets extended, anybody who hasn't cleaned up their act before it expires, might get cut off from the Internet altogether.
FBI:
As part of that order, the defendant’s rogue DNS servers have been replaced with legitimate ones. Internet Systems Consortium (“ISC”), a not-for-profit entity, was appointed by the court to act as a third-party receiver for a limited period of 120 days during which time it will administer the replacement DNS servers. Although the replacement DNS servers will provide continuity of Internet service to victims, those replacement servers will not remove the Malware from the infected computers.
If this happens to you, your internet might appear to stop working on march 8th, but all you need to do is point it at an active DNS server to make it go. (just like always.) That first article makes it sound like the FBI is digging up the wire in your front yard to keep you from spreading the virus to others (which would be a serious problem and gigantic lawsuit)
You can go here: http://dcwg.org or here: https://forms.fbi.gov/check-to-see-if-your-computer-is-using-rogue-DNS for instructions on checking your settings, but I doubt you've got it unless you install really sketchy codecs on your machine.
| Between this IP... | ... and this IP |
| 77.67.83.1 | 77.67.83.254 |
| 85.255.112.1 | 85.255.127.254 |
| 67.210.0.1 | 67.210.15.254 |
| 93.188.160.1 | 93.188.167.254 |
| 213.109.64.1 | 213.109.79.254 |
| 64.28.176.1 | 64.28.191.254 |
You should go ahead and change your DNS to Google's Public DNS anyway though, cause it's faster than the ones your ISP provides and the numbers are SUPER easy to remember:
No comments:
Post a Comment