Will you lose internet access July 9?

Hundreds of thousands may lose Internet access July 9 and consumers and businesses are urged to run a quick and easy diagnostic test to see if their computers are infected.

Last November, the FBI took down the servers of international hackers operating out of Estonia. The hackers had already successfully downloaded malware onto more than half a million computers, turning off virus updates and redirecting consumers to fraudulent websites.

The FBI set up clean servers to replace the ones that were running the scam. Victims have been redirected to those clean servers ever since, usually without any knowledge they were infected in the first place.

The rescue servers were to be active until March, but a court ruling extended the program until July 9. At that time, the clean servers will be turned off and anyone still infected with the malware will lose Internet access. According to the release, the FBI believes there are still about 360,000 infected computers in a dozen countries, including the U.S. and Canada.

The FBI’s DNS Changer Working Group can detect the malware and explain how to fix infected machines. It takes less than a minute to run the test. If your computer is infected, the DNS Changer Working Group will provide the necessary steps to save your computer. But this must be done by July 9 or you could lose Internet access.

Protect yourself from online scams:

Research before you click. To try and gain your trust, hackers will create convincing-looking messages that entice consumers to click the advertisement. Before clicking on an unknown popup, take the time to research the company on your own.

Protect your computer. Install updates to your operating system for free by enabling the option on your computer’s security center. Keep all anti-virus software up-to-date and make sure all security patches and updates are installed for programs that access the Internet.

Protect your personal information. Don’t provide your personal information or credit card information to an unknown company or website. Look for “https” instead of “http” or a padlock icon at the bottom of the screen which will indicate security software is in place.

Article courtesy of the Better Business Bureau of Central, Coastal and South Texas.