Contrary to any speculation and unjustified fear, Internet Doomsday didn't manage to create chaos. Hours after the Apocalypse was released by FBI, major service providers say almost all customers have avoided the shut-off of their Internet service, although there are some who won't be able to read this piece of news, unless they use their smartphones.
Internet Doomsday Had Minimal Impact
For instance, Todd C. Smith, Cox Communications affirmed that less than 1% of the company's customers were infected with the virus. This idea is also highlighted by Charlie Douglas, Comcast senior director of corporate communications, saying that the company received a miniscule number of calls. Cox, like other Internet service providers, worked closely with FBI on this case, in order to reduce the impact.
Verizon said it's not seeing anything significant. Bob Elek, representing the company added that a very small relative number of customers were impacted, but Verizon Communications anticipates a difficult time, as we go forward during July. For AT&T customers, there has been very little impact, according to Mark Siegel, AT&T executive director. For the very small number of customers whose computers were affected, the company redirected their traffic to servers to enable them to continue using their computers. The measure will last until end of the year, so these people will have even more time to remove the virus from their computers.
If internet providers are so optimistic, on the other head security researchers keep their mind clear, since it's still too early to really know DNS Changer's impact. For instance, David Harley, ESET security senior research, says ISPs aren't necessarily in a rush to reveal the number of their customers affected. Internet service providers may already be redirecting requests to a valid server, but it's not a long-term solution. Because the malware, known as ‘DNSChanger’ is so nasty, it's strongly recommended to use a tough anti-virus software. Users who find that they cannot access the Internet today can contact their ISP for assistance, or if they're do-it-yourselfers, they can download an antivirus program from a tablet, place it on a USB flash drive, then install it on the affected PC or Mac to get rid of the malware.
Those who are having problems getting online Monday should call their Internet service provider for further instructions on what to do. At 12:01 a.m., FBI shut down Internet servers that had been set up as a temporary safety net to keep infected computers online for the past eight months.
Internet Doomsday Had Minimal Impact
DNS Changer hijacked users' clicks by modifying their computers' domain name system (DNS) settings. The hacker-controlled DNS servers then redirected victims to malicious sites that resembled real domains. At one point, as many as four million PCs and Macs were infected with the malware, which earned its makers $14 million, which made US federal authorities take serious action, as you can notice.
Once the system has been disinfected, users must restore the machine's DNS settings. Those settings can be obtained from one's ISP, or the user can switch to a free DNS service, such as OpenDNS. But don't worry, if you can't manage on your own, internet providers promised to call any customer having trouble, in order to end this chapter sooner and once and for all.
11
