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Internet users 'should check for blackout virus'
Published: 12 Jan 12 07:56 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20120112-40053.html
The German government says all internet users should check their computers for a virus which could stop them going online from March 8.
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A “DNS-Changer” infection means a computer connects to a fake version of the Domain Name System – the service which enables access to websites, the Office for Information Technology Security (BSI) said on its website on Wednesday.
Rather than connecting to the normal DNS, an infected computer is instead re-routed to websites which criminals have manipulated and use for fraudulent activities such as the spreading of fake anti-virus software.
Those operating the fake DNS have also been sending manipulated advertising to infected computers, manipulated search results and sent further malware to them.
Although the FBI and European police authorities arrested many of those operating the fake DNS system in November, they left the system running while a real one was put in its place. But the fake one will be shut down on March 8, leaving those computers still connecting to it, in the dark.
A quick check can be carried out by logging onto the site www.dns-ok.de which has been set up by the government, Deutsche Telekom and the German federal police.
A simple green-coloured response from the site means your computer is free of the “DNS-Changer”. The BSI said the page would not start a program or download anything.
A red response means your computer is infected, and the site will offer a number of suggestions of how to fix it.
The Local/hc
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Your comments about this article:
http://www.dns-ok.de/
Anyway i will try it....
No Single Operating System is safe or secure. No one should gloat about operating system X versus Y, they all have weakness. It is the price that is paid to be connected.
The only safe and secured system must be in sealed room, turned off, and disconnect from everything, and if you are still paranoid, take the CPU chip off the motherboard, granted it is not much use, but by all of the lords of the internet it is secure, plus it makes a great paper weight.
Yawn.
Most people who run Windows (myself included) run it for the sheer breadth and quality of software that is available on the platform. Open source fails to make the grade, even for running basic stuff like office and production software. That makes Windows isn't going anywhere.
(Lest you think I'm some clueless numpty, I'm an experienced UNIX system administrator with around 13 years of Linux experience, plus plenty of Solaris, AIX, HP-UX and BSD experience, plus networking and storage administration.)
UNIX is great for hosting servers (and even then, most of my clients have to reboot their Linux boxes every 45 days or so, because the Linux kernel doesn't cope very well with very high loads. Windows Server doesn't have this problem, nor do any of the commercial-grade UNIXes.) However, with the possible exception of OS X (which was based on BSD, and designed with desktop use in mind), most UNIX operating systems - and Linux - are utterly crap for running desktop software on.
At the end of the day, I administrate UNIX and Linux boxes by the dozen - but when it comes to doing my own stuff at home, I regard Linux as a time sink. I have a wife, a life and plenty of other things to do with my time - I'm no longer a teenage hacker with 18 hours of time per day available to spend tweaking my kernel or customising my desktop.