Companies Working to Stop Internet Malware - Central Coast News KION/KCBA

Companies Working to Stop Internet Malware. Last week the FBI intercepted a virus last year and kept thousands of computers running on its servers. It warned the virus would shut down the system on Monday.

The FBI is calling the malicious software DNS Charger. The FBI estimates about 570,000 people could be affected by this mal ware threat but those numbers could decrease thanks to help from top Internet service providers like Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and Time Warner.

In January, companies started sending out letters, emails and phone calls to customers who are the most prone to being infected. The virus started in 2007 hitting almost 4 million people in more than 100 different countries.

Since then, the FBI estimated only about 45,000 people in the U.S. will be offline. Central Coast News reached out to several computer companies to see what they've heard from customers. So far they've received a few calls about the virus but haven't had to fix any infected computers.

The FBI is directing people to this web site; www.DCWG.org for information on how to detect the virus, fix it and protect their computers from it in the future.