Thousands could wake up with no internet Monday

'DNSChanger' computer virus could leave as many as 50,000 Americans without internet

July 09, 2012|By Dustin Hodges, KY3 News | dhodges@ky3.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mo - If you woke up this morning and couldn't get on the internet at home, you're not the only one. Hundreds of thousands of people could lose internet access today, if their computers are infected with malicious software.

If you caught it before today you could go to a number of websites and download a free software that would fix your problem, but many people probably don't know they're infected.

If your computer had been infected, when you typed in a web address in your browser, instead of taking you to that site, your computer would redirect you to a site that allowed hackers to access your personal information.

To fix the problem, you'll need to get on another computer in your house that is not infected or go to a local business and download software that will detect and remove the malicious software from your computer. The software is free and most computer places will help you detect and remove the malicious software for free.

Computer experts I talked to say if your computer has been infected, thieves could have had access to personal information on your computer.

"This is more of a concern to small and medium sized business and we're also concerned about enterprise level, there might be a computer in the back office that somebody hasn't really kept up to date and could be leaking possible personal information," says Zack Howell with Altec Computers.

The best way to keep your computer safe is to update it whenever possible and to have some spyware on it, but you have to keep updating it because thieves are constantly coming up with new viruses.

If you are infected don't worry; thieves have not been able to steal your information for weeks now because the FBI seized the servers the hackers were using to steal information and cleaned them up so they were working fine; that's why many people never knew they had been infected.

The reason users may have lost internet today is because the FBI is shutting those servers down now so people who were infected will now know it and get the problem fixed.

To find out more about the 'DNSChanger' computer virus and what you need to do if your computer has been infected, visit the FBI's website by clicking here.

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