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John Fisher
 

The internet might stop working on Monday

by John Fisher , posted Jul 6 2012 10:10AM
For thousands of people, and dozens of Fortune 500 companies, Monday's going to be exciting -- the Internet might stop working.  In a nutshell, there's a virus that infected computers over a year ago, and if yours is one of them, you'll find out for sure on Monday when you're unable to watch funny cat videos on YouTube. 

Here's a good explanation of the whole thing from Slate.com:

A bunch of servers were taken over by an Estonian crime ring. The ring, which was busted last November, had been using the servers to redirect millions of Internet users to rogue websites when they tried to visit normal websites. The FBI took over the servers and cleaned them up, but it doesn’t particularly want to be in the business of running DNS servers permanently—so it’s shutting them down on July 9.

The date has been dubbed “Internet Doomsday” because everyone still using those servers will lose pretty much all access to the Web once the FBI takes them down. The name is a little hyperbolic, given that only a few hundred thousand people are still on the servers. Still, it’s probably best to make sure you aren’t one of them.

If you were, there’s a good chance you would have realized at some point last year that some normal websites were looking a bit odd, filled with pop-up ads or trying to sell you things you didn’t want. But hey, the Internet is an odd place, so it’s possible you didn’t notice the difference. If so, the DCWG website should be able to tell you for sure.

To find out if this nasty malware has infected your computer, go here.

Then, if you are one of the chosen people who have the virus, go here to fix it.

Then, enjoy this video of a cat playing the piano:




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07/06/2012 7:09AM
The internet might stop working on Monday
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