As published on the Dunwoody Patch website.
By Adam Freedman
Another Monday, another paralyzing overhyped paranoia from our friends in the media. The FBI was shutting down DNS servers that directed infected computers from accidentally venturing to the dark side of the internet.
By shutting them down, the infected computers that utilized these servers would be incapable of going anywhere. An internet dark hole. At best guess in the U.S., there would be 64,000 affected. Not a whole lot.
Look at my family. We each have a computer. We have 2 iPads. We have 2 smart phones (wife has an iPhone, I have a battery sucking I-can't-wait-until-Apple-releases-a-TRUE-4G-(don't argue with me that AT&T is 4G)-phone Galaxy Nexus. Even if we lost our computers via infection, we would be ok. Multiply that by 100 million households.
Even if the virus affected your internet service provider (ISP), that would only affect your computers at home, not those who are travelling. So, overblown, end of the world stuff, didn't happen.
What does worry me and should worry you? It's the unknown. It's the stuff that slows down your computer that you have no idea about. It's the programs I see when I clean up your computer that lets you download stuff for free, let's you convert music and videos, let's you see what the weather looks like in Bora Bora.
These programs often have unknown motivations. Don't install them unless you have absolute assurance that they don't have evil alterior motives. Oh, and hard-core mac fan-boys, the App Store just booted an app that scoured your contacts list and sent out SMS messages without your express written consent. Here come the viruses, spyware, and general malware that you have been able to mostly avoid through your life.
Can't wait. Let's see the media have fun with that one.
