Saturday, April 21, 2012

According to the AP, in July the FBI will stop protecting people from a malevolent computer virus

Bookworm
Apr 20 2012 at 5:45 pm


I don’t quite know what to make of this story about the FBI’s decision to stop protecting people from a computer virus. It doesn’t come through as an email rumor; it comes through as an actual AP article. Although AP is always suspect in my mind when it comes to politically charged issues, I have to assume that, as to this story, it has credibility:

For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.

Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.

The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, www.dcwg.org, that will inform them whether they’re infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won’t be able to connect to the Internet.

You can read the rest of the story here.

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