On July 9, thousands of Canadians and hundreds of thousands of people
worldwide could be without access to the internet after the FBI shuts
down temporary DNS servers used to assist victims of a massive internet
fraud ring.
All computers that still use these servers will meet a virtual brick
wall on July 9 and be unable to connect to the internet until their
computers are cleared of the associated 'DNSChanger' virus.
The shutdown of the temporary DNS servers by U.S. authorities is the
last stage in Operation Ghost Click, a two-year international
investigation that officially ended in November 2011.
The FBI, in association with international law enforcement, managed to
track and apprehend six Estonians using an ostensibly legitimate front
company who had organized a sophisticated system of false DNS servers.
These servers rerouted the web browsers of infected computers to sites
of the hackers' own choosing, some of which were fraudulent in nature.
Computers were forced to connect to the internet through these servers
by a customized virus called DNSChanger that was distributed along
conventional channels, such as infected emails, bad websites, and
malware scripts.
When it broke up the hacking group in 2011, the FBI established
temporary 'clean' servers in place of the bad ones so that computers
infected with DNSChanger wouldn't suddenly be cut off from the internet.
However, the contract to maintain these servers will end July 9, resulting in their shutdown.
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