At 12:01 EDT today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation flipped the killswitch that enabled DNSChanger-affected computers to continue surfing the Internet.  The FBI commissioned a private entity to provide two clean servers to enable affected computers to continue using the internet but that service should’ve ended last March 8 but they filed for an extension to give everyone ample time to know if they’re infected and to do something about it.  The second deadline was today and they’re not giving any more extensions.

So was there a massive Internet blackout?

Blackout goes unnoticed

Some expected that chaos would erupt when the killswitch was flipped but surprisingly, the Internet is quite peaceful.  No one is talking about it on Twitter or Facebook.  Affected people may not be able to complain about the blackout, because duh, they are affected, but I was expecting that their friends or relatives would be talking on their behalf or the affected people would use their mobile phones to vent out.

But there’s a good reason why “Internet Doomsday” is not as huge–Internet service providers aide their consumers.  Yes, that’s right, ISPs are keeping infected users online.

“Many global operators are keeping their DNS Changer victims online, even after FBI stopped. We do not expect much noise about this today,” said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at the Finland-based firm F-Secure, in a Twitter message.

Another reason why the Internet doomsday is a bust is because a lot of people heeded the warnings and dealt with the problem.  If there are still affected computers, experts believe that it would be a very small population.

Johannes Ullrich of the SANS Security Institute also explained that there’s a possibility that infected Windows PCs reverted to their default settings when the clean DNS servers were turned off by the FBI.  He also added that if a person has an updated antivirus or any working antivirus, there’s a chance that they’ve already dealt with the problem.

Still, the problem persists.  If ISPs are keeping the infected computers online, there’s a huge chance that the DNSChanger malware to multiply.  But CIOs of different companies are no longer worried but they are still keeping a close watch over the Trojan.

Equinix CIO Brian Lillie said the data center company uses several layers of security to defend against DNSChanger and other threats. Though he believes that the DNSChanger could not affect Equinix,  they “continue to remain vigilant and monitor our systems and networks closely,” Lillie told CIO Journal.

Infected computers

It’s believed that there are more than  275,000 machines that are still infected by the DNSChanger.  If you’re one of them, contact your ISP and have them help you address your problem.

If you’re reading this, maybe from your phone or at your friend’s computer in their house, I’m happy to inform you that the blackout is not forever.  There is a solution.

First, if you have an antivirus installed in your computer, better run it.  If the Trojan is present, your antivirus might be able to remove it, if not, contact your ISP.  You might want to backup all your important files as resolving the problem may require you to reformat your computer – as in uninstalling your operating software then reinstalling it to totally remove the malware.  If you really have no idea how to deal with all these techie stuff, better call an IT expert – a friend or relative so you can beg them to fix your computer for free, but if they won’t either pay them to fix your computer, hire an expert, or bring it to a shop that deals with these kinds of problems to have it fixed.