In November of 2011, the FBI broke up a botnet scam by which seven Eastern European scammers since 2007 had turned more than 500,000 computers worldwide into a botnet of malware infected computers that redirected the victims’ web browsers to sites designated by the scammers that enabled them to earn more than fourteen million dollars in affiliate and referral fees.    The insidious malware used also prevented infected computers from downloading security software that could detect and cure the problem.  When the FBI shut down the operation last November, they took control of the servers used by the scammers and set up temporary servers to permit the infected computers to still have Internet access.  However, come July 9th, those temporary servers will be turned off and if your computer is one of the 277,000 still estimated as being infected, you will lose all Internet service.

TIPS

Fortunately all you need to do is to go to http://www.dns-ok.us/ to determine if you are infected.  You do not need to download any software to determine if your computer is infected and your computer will not be scanned.  If you find that your computer is infected go to http://www.dcwg.org/fix for help in clearing your computer of the malware. Don’t wait until the last minute.