PC users urged to check for malware

PETALING JAYA: Come July 10, thousands of computers infected with the DNSChanger malware (malicious software) will be disconnected from the Internet if their users don't take some necessary steps.
The problem is that many PC users may not even know that their computers have been infected.
F-Secure Labs Malaysia security adviser Goh Su Gim explained that the United State Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) planned to shut down hacker-controlled servers that had been reprogrammed to prevent infected PCs from being suddenly disconnected, causing support-call chaos.
The servers were temporarily reprogrammed after the arrest of six Estonians believed to have created the malware in November last year.
The servers, located in Estonia and the United States, will be deactivated on July 9 and PCs still infected with DNSChanger will not function normally as they will not be able to access these servers.
CyberSecurity Malaysia is aware of the problem and has notified Internet service providers here that about 1,500 PCs belonging to service subscribers were infected with DNSChanger.
It also called on all PC users in the country to run a check on their machines.
Its software tool to check for and remove DNSChanger can be found at http://dnschanger.detect.my.
F-Secure also has a similar tool at http://bit.ly/JEPBiz. More information on DNSChanger is also available on this webpage.