When I first saw the posts about the “internet doomsday” virus and something that is supposed to happen on July 9, I assumed it was a hoax or a phishing scam. Considering that I first read about it in someone’s Tumblr feed did not necessarily inspire my confidence. That said, Snopes has apparently confirmed its authenticity, and multiple news sites have reported on it:

Thousands could lose access to the Internet on July 9 due to a virus, DNSChanger, that once infected approximately 4 million computers across the world.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation first gave details about the virus last November, when it announced the arrest of the malware’s authors. The virus, as its name indicates, affected computers’ abilities to correctly access the Internet’s DNS system — essentially, the Internet’s phone book. The virus would redirect Internet users to fake DNS servers, often sending them to fake sites or places that promoted fake products. Once the FBI shut down the operation, it built a safety net of new servers to redirect traffic from those infected with the virus.

But that safety net is going offline next Monday meaning that anyone who is still infected with the virus will lose access to the Internet unless they remove it from their machine.

You can make sure your computer is okay in 2-3 relatively easy steps (I can’t say with 100% certainty that all of this is legit, but I’ve checked around quite a bit. Still, proceed at your own risk):

1. Get your IP address for your computer. If you don’t know it, use a site like WhatIsMyIP.com.

2. Check to see if your computer has the virus (specifically, check to see if your IP address is linked to one of the rogue DNS servers associated with the virus). You can do this through the FBI or through the DNS Changer Working Group (DCWG). If the test comes up negative, congrats, you’re done, go back to looking a lolcats or whatever it is you do during the day.

3. If you’re positive, the DCWG has tools you can use to clear the virus from your computer. My computer is clean, so I don’t know how this part works.

Good luck!

Photo credit: ‘Virus rezon’ By DROUET (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons.