Advertising virus DNSCharger

In 2007, a cyber crime ring in Europe infected approximately 4 million computers in more than 100 countries, according to the FBI. In November of 2011, six Estonian nationals and one Russian national were charged with infecting more than four million computers with the DNSChanger malware. The DNSChanger malware worked by routing internet searches away from one's internet service provider to a rogue domain name system server operated by a fraudulent internet marketing company. Users were directed to specified websites to see and click advertisements resulting in fees to the tune of $14 million being paid to the virus developers. This advertising virus also prevents your computer from obtaining critical security updates to their operating system and antiviru softwares.

"Remediation efforts were immediately undertaken to minimize any disruption of Internet service to the users of computers infected with the Malware," an FBI press release stated. "This remediation was necessary because the dismantling of the defendants' rogue DNS servers — to which millions of computers worldwide had been redirected — would potentially have caused all of those computers, for all practical purposes, to lose access to websites." Meanwhile a federal judge has granted the request of FBI officials to extend the deadline for shutting down infected servers to July, in order to allow computer users more time to rid their machines of the advertising virus DNSChanger.