Doomsday virus fizzles out
The so-called Internet doomsday virus with the potential to black out tens of thousands of computers worldwide appeared to pose no major problems on Monday after a temporary fix expired.
Security firms reported no significant outages linked to the DNS Changer virus, as many Internet service providers have either implemented a fix or contacted customers with steps to clean their computers. A report on the iAfrica.com site notes that the problem stems from malware known as DNS Changer, which was created by cybercriminals to redirect internet traffic by hijacking the domain name systems (DNS) of web browsers. The ring behind the DNS Changer was shut down last year by the FBI, Estonian police and other law enforcement agencies, after infecting some four million computers worldwide. Some 210 000 computers worldwide remained infected as of Sunday, including more than 41 000 in the US. On Monday, temporary servers set up by the FBI to direct Internet traffic normally, even for infected computers, were shut down. But security specialists said most Internet users and providers have had time to work around or fix the problem. Full report on the iAfrica.com site