The Federal Bureau of Investigation, in a desperate pursuit to finally put an end to the countless DNS attacks of the infamous worm named DNSCharger Trojan on millions of computers in the U.S. and other parts of the globe, has considered the plan to take down a huge number of DNS servers and along with it millions of Internet users. It's estimated that half of all Fortune 500 companies and 27 out of 55 government sectors are infected by the DNSCharger Trojan.

The FBI was able to temporarily stop the widespread of the virus by replacing the infected servers with newer ones, thus giving companies and individuals affluent time to clean up the mess. Unfortunately, the solution was not enough to stop the DNSCharger from spreading its wrath. Although the FBI, with the help of local authorities, was able to capture the Estonian programmers responsible for the attacks, by the time they knew about it, the Trojan has already been distributed to more than 100 countries.

With the court's decision to approve the expiry of the replacement servers on March 8 and with only a few options left on its sleeve, the FBI has considered what the victims have feared the most - to forcibly shut down the infected DNS servers. That accounts to millions of PCs overall. So how nasty is the DNSCharger malware?

Once inside the computer, the Trojan can alter the DNS settings of the system, leaving your PC vulnerable to hidden re-routes to illegal websites that may contain more malware. What's worse is that the DNSCharger has the capability to stop your computer from accessing websites that are offering fixes to the problem. It's a very dangerous malware that the FBI is taking very seriously.

Brian Krebs, a journalist who specializes in cyber security, said, "Computers still infected with DNSChanger are up against a countdown clock. As part of the DNSChanger botnet takedown, the feds secured a court order to replace the Trojan’s DNS infrastructure with surrogate, legitimate DNS servers. But those servers are only allowed to operate until March 8, 2012. Unless the court extends that order, any computers still infected with DNSChanger may no longer be able to browse the Web." So, are you safe? You can check out and verify your DNS's security here.

Source: Yahoo
Images: ExtremeTech, Softzone, Kuettner