Hundreds of Thousands May Lose Internet Access in July

[kitty125]

I started seeing this a couple days ago all over yahoo,even posted on my local news website.this is pretty serious to anyone that uses the internet only for their news updates but cant trust the FBI/government enough to go through with this sites suggestion. :/ i cannot express the anger that would follow if my internet was shut off.

http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2012/04/hundreds-of-thousands-may-lose-internet-access-in-july.html

 

[kitty125]

more info at this link.posted the wrong one,sorry.

http://www.wafb.com/story/17613582/hundreds-of-thousands-may-lose-internet-in-july

 

[SoCurious]

I've started taking steps to get as far away as possible from the companies that have supported CISPA. By the end of May I'll be completely switched over to linux. From what I can gather, Ubuntu Linux and Mint Linux are the two distros best for home users. Linux, for those who are not aware of it, is incredibly stable, uses less computer overhead, and is far more secure than Windows. (I've always been suspicious of Microsoft)

I don't know that I can stop using google but have found ixquick.com which although it uses the google search engine does not record your IP address.

I know I won't be able to stop US snooping but I'm not going to hand myself over on a platter either.

 

[Scottie]

This whole thing is simply laughable.

Yes, there was apparently some malware, and the FBI arrested these Estonians, and yes the malware changes your DNS servers to point to the "evil" sites. Except that right now, the FBI took over the servers, so all one has to do is go to the website they mention and check your DNS server settings. If you think you have malware, get the free version of this and do a scan: www.malwarebytes.org

The thing is, there are LOTS of trojans out there that are WAY, WAY worse than this stupid little annoyance. While it's true that the average user would be totally screwed without knowledge of how to change DNS servers and that kind of thing, I have personally encountered 3 different trojans in the last month that were far more diabolical. I also know several other people who got hit by some malware and they lost all kinds of data and had to replace their computers.

Well, that's a bit of overkill, because with the right tools and knowledge, it's not hard to protect oneself and recover from any malware attack.

But in any case, to me it looks like this FBI group is seriously trying to justify their existence or something. This story is so NOT news that I almost cried. And if somebody thinks that they're going to use this as an excuse to kill a bunch of people's internet connections, they've got another think coming. Whether the mass hysteria is coincidental or intentional, this particular problem is so tame that I'm surprised they've made such a big stink about it. We'll see what happens.

There are instructions here on manually checking your DNS settings:

 

[kitty125]

im sort of computer illiterate so i didnt know what could and couldnt be done.yall are the only site that i trust so i figured someone could maybe ease our minds a bit.thanks for the info and download :)

 

[dant]

There is a "big spread" front page news on the Sunday Oregonian.

...
But in any case, to me it looks like this FBI group is seriously trying to justify their existence or something.
...

My thoughts exactly and perhaps it is designed to be alarming and
self-serving?

What is unusual is for the FBI to provide this information (and not the
DHS Cyber agency), and did not provide the specific malware/infection,
then provided a website for a "solution". It does not pass the nose test.

Any computer repair "advice" given by persons/agencies ought to tread
carefully. Instead of acting on fear and following instructions like a useful
idiot, perhaps it is better to do your own independent research on how to
best check your computer for infections. Knowledge protects!

I have seen many manipulative operators out there preying on the fears
of the computer-illiterate (and sometimes the experts as well) and take
them for a ride.

Aside from Trojans, other bad ones I have seen is where a user visits a new
website and a pop-up message says your computer is infected (simultaneously
infecting the computer) then takes you to the repair company's website with
instructions for payment/call/support to remove the infection they caused in
the first place, sometimes via proxies. There are many, many "war stories" on
this subject.

 

[Guardian]

DNS Changer was a very prolific infection, it could, and did, do some serious damage, but what they're not telling you is that if you use a commercial provider like Verizon, AT & T, Frontier, Charter, etc. you were most likely cut off by your provider months ago, informed your machine was infected, and provided with cleaning instructions.

I'm in total agreement with PROVIDERS temporarily suspending net access to customers whose computers are infected with malicious software, as long as they detect these infections by the malware's attempt to propagate over their services.

However, there is/was no reason for the government to intercede. Once they seized the servers they could simply have notified any providers still unaware of the situation.

 

[ocean59]

I think this may be a litmus test of sorts - if they can pull this off without too much resistance, just imagine what the next step might be...probably not a small scale trial run such as this.

It's not like it would even be hard to imagine that the same people wanting the kill-switch powers being connected to the authorship of the virus itself...but that is just wild speculation on my part.

 

[Palinurus]

I just received a strange warning message from Google Chrome while accessing this thread (all other threads are loading normally for me).

Hi Jason (ocean59),
I duplicated your moves and went to the designerterminal website as well, and nothing happened.

I use Opera browser, AVG security suite and CA Anti-spyware - none of them bleeped. So my guess would be: False positive or just a glitch in Google Chrome. FWIW.

 

[Laura]

If anybody ever gets a notice like that about our sites, PLEASE take a screen shot to accompany the report.

 

[Vulcan59]

Hi Jason,

I merged your post which you had made in another topic. :)

 

[ocean59]

If anybody ever gets a notice like that about our sites, PLEASE take a screen shot to accompany the report.

I am still receiving that notice whenever I access the thread in which I originally posted the report. I have attempted to attach a screenshot to this post.

Hi Jason,

I merged your post which you had made in another topic. :)

Thanks, however it should be noted that I'm only getting that message on the other thread (and not this one or any other so far): https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=26869.new;topicseen#new

 

[ocean59]

So my guess would be: False positive or just a glitch in Google Chrome. FWIW.

Thanks for checking Palinurus, hopefully it is nothing.

 

[Vulcan59]

Thanks, however it should be noted that I'm only getting that message on the other thread (and not this one or any other so far): https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=26869.new;topicseen#new

Ah, okay I get it. I'll put it back to where it was.

 

[Palinurus]

Thanks for checking Palinurus, hopefully it is nothing.

Possible explanation: there may have been an issue recently (within 30 days back) and Google Chrome has not yet been updated with new info concerning this particular website (designerterminal). Something like that happens sometimes (lagging behind), nothing to worry about.