DNS Doomsday 0
Despite repeated alerts, the number of computers that probably are infected is more than 277,000 worldwide, down from about 360,000 in April. Of those still infected, the FBI believes that about 64,000 are in the United States.
The malware changed the DNS (Dynamic Name System) settings in computers and routers to point to bogus DNS servers.
DNS provides the street signs for the internet. When you put “pineviewfarm.net” in your browser’s address bar, the computer goes to a DNS server, which in turn provides the ip address (97.74.215.117) of pineviewfarm.net. The browser then searches the back streets and alleyways of the innerwebs for that numeric address.
The malware was discovered a while ago and the perps put out of business; the servers have been kept on line to give persons a chance to check and fix their DNS settings. If you have a home router and use DHCP, the settings are stored in your router.
You can check your settings by going to http://www.dcwg.org.
Oh, and the malware worked only on Windows. No worries here.
