So a few days ago my mom tells me about this foreigner who makes a computer virus and sends it to every American. She says she saw it on CNN. And that I need to go to the FBI's website to do a scan so we don't lose internet.
Now, I don't like the idea of losing internet as much as the next dude, but that sounds awfully suspicious if you ask me.
So what do you all think?
So in other news, my mom forced me to do it. On the site it said something about detecting if we had a DNS changer or whatever.
Here's the site in case anyone wants to see if it's not full of shit or whatever: http://www.dcwg.org/?page_id=381
Mom: "Just do it; stop acting like it's a spy or something."
Me, thinking: "Piss off."
What virus could someone produce that the FBI and ONLY the FBI could deal with?
It's a DNS poisoning virus. Just update your virus definitions and run a scan, you'll be fine.
And if you want to see if you're infected, you don't have the FBI scan your computer, you just go here: http://www.dcwg.org/ This is the private company the FBI hired to help take care of the problem. It'll tell you if your DNS has been poisoned or not. If it hasn't, you're fine.
Quote from: MrBogosity on July 08, 2012, 08:56:26 AM
It's a DNS poisoning virus. Just update your virus definitions and run a scan, you'll be fine.
And if you want to see if you're infected, you don't have the FBI scan your computer, you just go here: http://www.dcwg.org/ This is the private company the FBI hired to help take care of the problem. It'll tell you if your DNS has been poisoned or not. If it hasn't, you're fine.
Thanks for your reply, Shane.
That actually is the site my mom got me to visit. I just posted that more specific portion of said site because it was where I needed to go to run the "scan" or whatever they have us do.
I just wish she hadn't referred to it as "a virus" and "The FBI". She knows I'm an anarchist, was she TRYING to get me suspicious?
Oh well, I guess I owe her an apology.
Well, it IS a virus, but in reality it was taken care of a long time ago and pretty much all the virus scanners have it in its definitions.
What happened is, the FBI arrested the hackers who created the virus, but they realized if they shut down their fake DNS servers then anyone infected with the virus wouldn't be able to get anywhere on the internet. So they got a court order to allow them to run the servers, pointing infected computers to the real websites etc. that they want to go to. That court order expires on the 9th, meaning that anyone who's still infected will lose internet access.
But really, the virus definitions have been out so long I doubt many people at all will be effected.