WASHINGTON – 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. [...]
Did you get that? Your computer may have been infected by hackers who rerouted your Internet traffic to their own DNS servers...and your friends the FBI put in a safety net for you so that when they arrested the hackers your infected Internet access was intact...just that now, instead of the hacker's servers, on the FBI's sanctioned servers. Doesn't that make you feel better?
But uh oh. In July they're going to shut those servers down. No more "safety net". That means you'll be without access to the Internet! There's nothing you can do about it. It's not like you could actually do anything to correct the packet routing on your own computer...no. You need to go to the FBI's website and get your computer checked to see if you're in the 0.02% of the population who "might" be infected.
Just a friendly heads up from your friends at the FBI!
This story needs a subtitle. Something like...
The FBI, spying on you so the bad guys can't.
or
Spying: if terrorists won't do it, the government will.