If you are reading this then you successfully survived Internet doomsday. Or rather, the 0.01%* of you that are infected with DNSChanger are safe. For now.

So what was that all about?

The clue is the 0.01% statistic. Despite media claims that "MILLIONS of internet users worldwide could be taken offline" the number of infected users was actually closer to 200,000 with just over 5,000 in Australia. Compare this to the estimated number of Internet users of over 2 billion worldwide and more than 19.5 million in Australia.

That is not to say the media should not be thanked, as they are at least partially responsible for increasing the public's awareness of DNSChanger. This, in combination with the efforts of the IT community worldwide, has seen total infections slashed from approximately 800,000 in November last year. This by itself is impressive.

But don't let the lack of exploding computers be a reason for complacency.

DNSChanger takes advantage of weaknesses in the implementation of DNS, by manipulating the DNS settings on local machines and routers, a technique which could quite easily be used by new malware in the future. Some sources predict that "DNS will take a more central role in atacks".

One final note, anyone who has not already done so should still visit http://www.dns-ok.gov.au/ for more information. This page in particular includes how to manually check DNS settings on your computer and router.

Till next time,
Olivia

*Based on worldwide figures of 200,000 infected users at 08/07/2012 and 2 billion Internet users as at 31/12/2011