Tweet

The extension granted in March for the DNS servers run by the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) for victims of the DNS Changer malware expires in a month. To recap: after the FBI (working with a cadre of private industry partners, including Trend Micro researchers) disconnected the ESThost/Rove Digital “rogue” DNS infrastructure in New York and Chicago as part of operation “ghostclick”, ISC acted under a custodial court order to install & maintain legitimate DNS servers for affected users.

The DNS Changer Working Group (DCWG) estimates that more than 350,000 users are still affected by DNS changer malware. Unlike the previous shutdown date in March – which was put off by a federal court – there will be no extension this time. In addition to checkup sites like the one maintained by the DCWG, commonly used sites like Facebook and Google have begun notifying their users as well. We urge users to check if they are affected by this problem; if they are they can go to the links provided by the DCWG or contact their ISP for help removing this threat. Users who ignore these warnings face being cut off from the entire Internet once the court order expires on July 9.

Trend Micro product users are protected from DNS Changer malware, detected as DNSCHANG. DNSCHANG is actively detected and removed from your system.

For details of the Esthost/Rove Digital takedown, you can consult the following blog posts:

• Esthost Taken Down – Biggest Cybercriminal Takedown in History
• 2011 in Review: Security Wins

The Esthost/Rove Digital takedown is still, to this day, the biggest takedown in terms of the size of the botnet taken offline. The following infographic compares it to previous takedowns: