Nice Thought, But
CBS reports on a looming problem for some people who use the ‘Net: Hundreds of thousands may lose Internet in July.
When the Feds busted a hacking ring, instead of just cutting off a half-billion Internet users whose machines were infected by the ring’s software, the Feds set up a clean server to allow those people to remain on-line and give them time to remove the infection. Apparently more than half of those infected haven’t done it yet, and funding for the server runs out in July.
DCWG.org is the official location to check to see if your Windows computer is infected, and the site has instructions for killing the sucker.
This was a redirection Trojan that also disables your anti-virus software, so many people are probably totally unaware that they have a problem beyond the fact that the ‘Net seems to be running slower than they remember.
This was a very nice thing for the Feds to do, but I wonder why they didn’t take it one step further, since they were redirecting these people’s machines and send them to a site that notified them that they were infected, before sending them to where they wanted to go.
A simple notice that told them to use an uninfected computer to get instructions to fix the problem from the maker of their anti-virus software, or another reputable site.
Only hacker sites ‘magically’ find a problem with your computer that they just happen to be able to ‘fix’ if you click on the link, so the Feds should not go beyond notification.
