Malware Monday Threat! Will Your Computer Be Affected By This Virus?

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Malware Monday may pass with a whimper! Leading Internet-service providers said Sunday that they had moved to ensure that computers infected with malware left behind by a hacking spree that started in 2007 continue to access the Internet normally, and expect relatively few Internet users to face a disruption. Since November the Federal Bureau of Investigation has authorized the operation of servers to allow infected computers to run normally, but those servers were scheduled to go offline at midnight. Officials from the companies played down the threat, and some cybersecurity experts said computer antivirus programs and updated operating systems have cleaned most infected computers. The FBI estimated that 64,000 computers were affected. The malware, which cybersecurity experts said had once infected millions of computers, was created by a group of hackers to route computers attempting to visit legitimate websites to look-a-like alternatives. Last year, the FBI’s “Operation Ghost Click” shut down the ring and indicted six Estonians and one Russian for their involvement in the malware scam. The malware, however, remained on computers. The FBI obtained a court order that allowed the Internet Systems Consortium, a nonprofit group that supports parts of the Internet’s infrastructure, to maintain “clean” servers. But those servers are to stop running Monday, leaving it to Internet-service providers to help users scrub the malware from their computers.