No doom with 'doomsday' virus - KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana

No doom with 'doomsday' virus

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By Chris McGill - bio | email
A woman has no problem working on her laptop. A woman has no problem working on her laptop.
Reanna Smith-Hamblin Reanna Smith-Hamblin

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LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - If you are able to read this article, you are likely among the lucky computer users who avoided the dreaded internet doomsday virus.

Hundreds of thousands of internet users were at risk of losing their online service Monday. According to a press release from the Better Business Bureau, the FBI took down servers from international hackers last November. Those servers were designed to download malware onto more than a half-million computers nationwide. Last week, steps were taken to warn consumers about the virus and how to get rid of it should their computers become infected.

On Monday morning, the Louisville office of the BBB had not received any calls or complaints about customers losing their internet connectivity.

"We have not heard anything," said Reanna Smith-Hamblin of the BBB. "We have not gotten any calls from people saying they've lost internet access, what do they do. So the doomsday doesn't seem very dooming at this point."

July Barbao with Time Warner Cable, the new owners of Insight Cable, said they've seen some infections across the country, but are working proactively to prevent customers from losing internet access. Barbao said that most customers won't even know they're infected until they are contacted by Time Warner directly.

Several customers of Heine Brothers Coffee on the Douglas Loop in the Highlands weren't even aware of the threat of the virus. Kelly Shiflet works at the coffee house and said she was sure customers would have said something about the loss of their internet connectivity if they were infected.

"We usually have some good dialogues with our customers, anyway, and I feel had our regulars heard about it, they would have mentioned it," Shiflet said.

At this point, it appears the doomsday virus was less than destructive. Only time will tell how many internet customers nationwide were affected by the bug. The good news is that anyone who does lose their internet connection due to the virus can simply call their internet service provider for help getting back online.

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