Kill doomsday virus before it cuts your net

If you can't log onto the internet starting tonight, well, that's probably because today is what many are calling "Internet Doomsday". As a result of US authorities shutting down a hacking scam last November, more than a quarter-million computers around the world are at risk of losing internet access today, reports CNBC-TV18's Ashwin Raghunath.

Last year, America's FBI, Nasa & Estonia police shut down a company called Rove Digital that distributed a DNS changing virus.
A DNS server plays a crucial role in directing users to the correct website. Once the name of a website is typed, the computer reaches a DNS server to find the desired website. DNS server changes Google.com to a string of numbers like 74.125.224.72 but in the case of the DNS changing virus, users were led to a fake DNS server and were directed to sites that delivered malicious responses to everyday queries.
The infection spread to a large part of the world and India ranked among the top countries infected by this virus. The FBI, as a remedial measure routed traffic through their servers, but this service is likely to come to an end today.
Even though services like DNS changer working group have been working towards helping people vaccinate themselves, chances are a lot of users could face a blackout tonight.
So, what should you do? For starters, head to dns-ok.us to see if you have been infected.
If you are, then the DNS changing working group's website dcwg.org provides detailed instructions on how you can remove the virus.
But then, the malware could also have been used to capture keystrokes and passwords. It would be a good idea to change your password to something strong today, an exercise that you must anyway do, once about every few months. Also watch the acompanying video.......