The FBI has issued a warning for a virus on the loose that has the ability to knock out the Internet access of your computer. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that the virus had been discovered a while back and the agency has so far been able to protect literally thousands of Internet users from the virus.

The virus works by modifying the DNS settings on your machine and thus being able to manipulate the Internet access protocol that your machine uses to access websites. This means that if your machine is infected and you want to visit socialbarrel.com, the virus can hijack the Internet protocol that connects you to socialbarrel.com, and you are sent to another website instead, or in some cases, a dynamically cloned version of the site.

DNS Changer – Image via FBI Website

In this instance, you would visit a website called theurbantwist.com, but in reality, the address has been modified on your browser such that you are actually on another website but masked with the address that you typed in.

The FBI says thousands of machines are vulnerable and Internet users should be on the lookout for malware called DNS Changer as the virus is shipping under that name.

The FBI cautions further that it will be cutting off all protection for Internet users against the virus starting July 9, saying it could not continue offering protection to the thousands of vulnerable machines owing to the apprehension and arrest of the crime group behind the virus.

However, the agency does offer a number of ways in which users can protect their computers from infection, as well as steps to take if your machine is infected with the virus.

The virus was developed and distributed by a malware gang that operated out of Estonia and have since been arrested, but the virus still lives on through various iterations and servers across the US. For more information, read more about DNS Changer here.

About Daniel Mbure

Daniel is a writer, strategist and serial tech entrepreneur. Follow Daniel on Twitter @thespianic