newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Around 64,000 computers in the United States may be affected by malware that could cause them to lose Internet service on Monday.

Warnings have been posted on Facebook and Google, and the FBI has set up a special website to deal with the issue. On Monday, infected computers will not be able to go online and they will have to contact their service providers for help deleting the malware and to reconnect.

Yahoo! News reports that the issue started when international hackers gained control of more than 570,000 infected computers worldwide through an advertising scam. The FBI realized that if they shut down the hackers’ servers, the victims would all lose their Internet service.

The malware was first discovered in 2006 and it has infected more than four million computers and routers. Techworld.com reports that the FBI and Estonian police arrested six Estonians in November 2011 and charged them with a number of cybercrimes.

The FBI had the Internet Systems Consortium install two clean Internet servers to take over the hackers’ servers so that victims could retain Internet services. The clean servers are scheduled to come down on Monday.

San Jose Mercury News reports that the malicious software is known as DNSChanger. Google began warning users who may be affected in May; Facebook did the same last month.

The malware worked by disrupting the Internet’s numerical domain name system, and sending infected computers to rogue servers controlled by a ring of cyberthieves which sent victims to their own unauthorized sites.

There is a page available here where users can check to see if their system has been affected with DNSChanger.