Google Alerts Users About Possible DNSChanger Infections

Posted By Matt Williams|06-07-2012

Google is warning people that may be connected to a malware network that they soon could not have internet access.

It’s awful being sick, and it’s awful having a computer virus. But at least when you know you’re infected, you can go to the doctor for medicine, and when you know your computer is infected, you can explore system restore and recovery or other options for dealing with the issue. Unfortunately, human viruses and computer viruses sometimes go undetected and untreated until they become more serious issues. Google is now trying to help users with an awareness campaign to identify machines infected with the DNSChanger system, according to PC World.

“In November of last year the United States FBI – in cooperation with Estonian law enforcement – tracked down and arrested the group behind the DNSChanger malware,” the news source said. “With millions of infected systems around the world relying on the malicious DNSChanger DNS servers, the FBI chose to continue hosting them as legitimate DNS servers.”

However, this situation will not last forever – the FBI is planning to shut down the servers in July, which will leave affected users out in the cold and unable to connect to the internet.

Google, being a mammoth of the internet, has decided to take it upon itself to help check the security of many PCs that browse its pages and let people know when there may be a problem. A blog post by Google said that it is trying to notify half a million people whose computers or home routers may be infected with DNSChanger.

“Our goal with this notification is to raise awareness of DNSChanger among affected users,” Google said in the blog post. “We believe directly messaging affected users on a trusted site and in their preferred language will produce the best possible results.”

Other ISPs have been taking their own courses of action, but Google said it chose to do this to give people who may not know about the issue a leg up. Once people clean their system or router, they should be sure to go with a layered security approach that will help protect them from being infected again.

Have you been hit with the DNSChanger? Are you worried about having your computer shut down when the DNS servers are killed?