{"id":26799,"date":"2012-07-05T18:27:28","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T16:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/?p=26799"},"modified":"2025-07-02T01:47:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:47:36","slug":"dns-changer-malware-how-to-check-if-youre-infected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/dns-changer-malware-how-to-check-if-youre-infected\/","title":{"rendered":"DNS Changer Malware \u2013 How to check if you\u2019re infected"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/dns-changer-malware-how-to-check-if-youre-infected\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-26807\" title=\"DCWG - Check, fix and protect\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2012\/07\/dcwg-logo.png\" alt=\"DCWG - Check, fix and protect\" width=\"207\" height=\"144\" \/><\/a>Over 300,000 computers around the world may be infected with a trojan which will prevent them connecting to the internet this Monday, July 9th. Known as the <strong>DNS Changer Malware<\/strong>, this malicious software is designed to <strong>alter your computer&#8217;s DNS settings<\/strong> without you knowing, effectively stopping you from getting online. The infection can be stopped and fixed using simple <a href=\"http:\/\/en.softonic.com\/windows\/anti-virus\">anti-virus software<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>DNS is the worldwide system used by computers connected to the internet to turn IP addresses (like 46.28.209.13) into web addresses (like http:\/\/en.softonic.com). The DNS Malware Changer maliciously changes your computer&#8217;s DNS settings so that all your your traffic runs through the malware creator&#8217;s own servers. This is dangerous as the criminals behind DNS Malware Changer would be able to <strong>hijack<\/strong> your searches, direct you to <strong>malicious websites<\/strong> and potentially promote <strong>dangerous or malicious products or services<\/strong>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h3><strong>How do I check if I have the DNS Changer Malware?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The FBI and multiple internet service providers are collaborating with the <a title=\"DCWG.org\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dcwg.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>DCWG.org<\/strong><\/a> website. DCWG lets you check if you have the malware installed, fix infected computers and protect computers from the malware.<\/p>\n<p>To check if your DNS settings are infected, visit this website: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dns-ok.us\/\">http:\/\/www.dns-ok.us\/<\/a> &#8211; you do not need to install any software to run this test. If the image shows up with a green background, you should be OK. If it&#8217;s red, you need to take action before Monday.<\/p>\n<p>If you detect a problem, you should install a reliable computer security program to fix your computer. These are currently the 3 most popular Windows anti-virus programs on Softonic:<\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"avast! Free Antivirus\" href=\"http:\/\/avast.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">avast! Free Antivirus<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Avira AntiVir Personal\" href=\"http:\/\/antivir.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Avira AntiVir Personal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"AVG Anti-Virus\" href=\"http:\/\/avg.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AVG Anti-Virus<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And this tool from Kaspersky is specifically designed to counteract malware of this sort:<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Kaspersky TDSSKiller\" href=\"http:\/\/kaspersky-tdsskiller.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Kaspersky TDSSKiller<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you want to stay protected from similar threats in future, I recommend you keep an anti-virus program installed on your computer, and make sure it stays up to date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over 300,000 computers around the world may be infected with a trojan which will prevent them connecting to the internet this Monday, July 9th. Known as the DNS Changer Malware, this malicious software is designed to alter your computer&#8217;s DNS settings without you knowing, effectively stopping you from getting online. The infection can be stopped &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/dns-changer-malware-how-to-check-if-youre-infected\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;DNS Changer Malware \u2013 How to check if you\u2019re infected&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2002,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[2441],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-26799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333735,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26799\/revisions\/333735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26799"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=26799"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=26799"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=26799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}