Hackers around the world created an online advertising scam that has affected the ability for people to access the Internet. According to the FBI, the hackers infected more than 570,000 computers worldwide and the hackers made profits of about $14 million from ads on websites victims were redirected to. The virus infected computers through holes they found in the Microsoft Windows operating system and disabled antivirus updates. The people behind the malware consisted of six men from Estonia and were arrested and charged in 2011.
These scamming hackers have built the malware in a way to infect people’s computers, giving them complete control over their computers. This malware piece called the DNS Changer Trojan has caused thousands of Internet users to possibly lose access to the Internet by July 9. Everyone is calling this day ‘Internet Doomsday.’
The FBI implemented a system to help infected computers access the Internet, but ‘Internet Doomsday’ comes into play when the FBI shuts down the system on July 9, the deadline for infected users to visit the DNS Changer Working Group’s website to help determine whether they have been infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, all infected users will not be able to use the Internet.
According to the FBI, the hackers infected more than 570,000 computers worldwide and made profits of about $14 million from ads on websites victims were redirected to. The virus infected computers through holes they found in the Microsoft Windows operating system and disabled antivirus updates.
“We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without Internet service. The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get ‘page not found’ and think the Internet is broken,” said FBI supervisory agent Tom Grasso.
Are you a victim of this worldwide hacking scam? Share your story and submit a complaint.
See Also
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If it looks like spam and and smells like spam, it’s a scam.