Rumors about the FBI shutting down the Internet on March 8th.
I've heard these rumors and while they're partially true, they've been mixed with a lot of fear and disinformation. Basically, a virus infected millions of computers that let hackers control what people see on the Internet. This is through something called the Domain Name Server (DNS) system, and the infected computers were redirected to whichever sites the hackers wanted people to see. Then a few months ago, the FBI managed to shut down the operation and instead of turning off the hacker's DNS server, which would have broken the Internet connections of millions of people, they replaced it with their own DNS servers so people would still have access to the Internet.
There was never any plan to make this permanent, so the FBI spread the word around and gave all the infected users until March 8th to fix their computers. What's a little confusing to me is why many people believe this is some sinister plot by the FBI to shut down the Internet. While I'm no fan of most of what the FBI does, this is actually something quite helpful they're doing. When the FBI took over the servers from the hackers, it gave them control over millions of computers. And now that they have enormous control over all the infected computers, what are they doing with that power? They're giving it away. That's actually quite nice of them and a far cry from what many people are accusing them of doing.
Another thing that's been lacking from many of the "March 8th Internet Shutdown" stories, and also the most important information people can spread about all this, is how people can fix their computers.
First, you can go here to find out if your computer is infected: http://dns-ok.us/
If it is, most anti-virus programs should have no trouble removing it. There's many free AV programs that work quite well, such as Avast ( http://www.avast.com ) and Avira ( http://www.avira.com/ ). If your AV program isn't fixing the problem, your AV program may have secretly been disabled by a virus. In this case you'll probably have to reinstall it or try a different anti-virus program.
Blessings!
Love Reporter Will
