DNSChanger: No, the Internet Isn’t Shutting Down on Monday

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Dozens of news outfits are amping up this DNSChanger malware “event”
on Monday with stories bearing apocalyptic titles like “Countdown to
Internet Doomsday: Will Your Computer Survive?” or “How to survive
internet doomsday” or “End of the Internet? ‘Doomsday’ virus will crash
thousands of computers on July 9.”

My personal favorite: “Five reasons DNSChanger victims deserve to
lose the internet.” Because nothing says “helping bewildered consumers”
like distorting what’s at stake to justify an almost gleefully callous
(but eye-catching!) headline.

When I click on any of these, I half-expect to find pictures of Bat
Boy, his half-human, half-nocturnal mammalian mouth opening like a
cartoon opera singer hitting the money note, his hands at his face
Macaulay Culkin-style, his computer melting like the Wicked Witch into a
pool of sludge.

What’s actually going down on Monday is far less theatrical.