Impending Internet darkness for thousands

This graphic shows how the DNSChanger malware worked.

The DNSChanger malware has been around for years, but its deleterious effects are coming to a head this Monday. Here's what you have to know about it, and how to fix it.

What is DNSChanger? DNSChanger is a Trojan horse malware with many variants. It changes an infected computer's DNS settings to point to rogue, bad guy-controlled servers. These then show you ads that look real, but aren't. Basically, it redirects your legitimate Web surfing to malicious Web sites that then attempt to steal personal information and generate illegitimate ad revenue.

How much money did DNSChanger make? From the time it was discovered around 2007 until six Estonian scammers were caught in November 2011, DNSChanger scored them upwards of $14 million, reportedly.

What does DNSChanger do? DNSChanger changes your Domain Name System settings without your permission. This is bad because DNS is basically the Internet's phone book crossed with a map. DNS links a URL, such as CNET.com, to an IP address. (An IPv4 address would be something like 192.1.56.10, while an ... [Read more]

The ACLU's Police Tape app lets users discreetly record audio and video and provides helpful legal information about their rights when interacting with police.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey has released an Android app designed to be used by people who want to secretly record police activity without running the risk that the mobile device will be seized.

Called Police Tape, the free app allows the user to record video and audio discreetly. For one thing, the app disappears from a phone's screen when the recording begins. For another, it can send a copy of the recording to the ACLU-New Jersey for backup storage and analysis of potential civil liberties violations.

It is similar to the Stop and Frisk Watch app for Android released last month by the New York Civil Liberties Union, which stops filming when the device is shaken and alerts people when other app users in the area are recording police activity. Both apps also provide legal information about citizens' rights when dealing with police.

Police and citizens have realized how helpful video recorded from mobile phones can be for investigations into claims of police brutality and misconduct, pa... [Read more]

Ever wanted to make a few dollars with the photos you've taken on your iPhone? Well, with Foap, you just might be able to do that.

The new iPhone app allows users to upload and sell photos they own the rights to.

Each photo you upload goes through an approval process and then is put into one of two categories: commercial or editorial.

Commercial photos can be used by companies in marketing or sales materials. The editorial section is for those who aren't out to make money using your photo (think bloggers and news editors). You're able to tag your photos, making it easier for people wanting to buy a photo on a specific topic to discover them.

There's also a Missions section in the app where companies can post what types of photos they are looking for, including required tags that need to be included in order for them to find your work. Right now there's only a couple companies looking for photos, both based out of Sweden.

Any photo listed on the site sells for $10. For hosting and listing your photo, Foap keeps half of the selling price, netting you a cool $5 each time one of your photos sells. It's not a ton of money, but if your photos take off, that could add up fast.

You can download Foap from the App Store for free.

Instapaper is a tool for saving Web pages for later offline reading.

Apple's App Store might be causing some trouble for application users.

Marco Arment, the creator of Instapaper, reported yesterday that he was "deluged" earlier this week by users who had downloaded Instapaper 4.2.3 and found that upon opening it, the application "crashed immediately." The issue even occurred after users removed the application from their devices and reinstalled it with a clean version.

After inspecting the issue, Arment found that the problem was due to what he said was a corrupt update Apple distributed through its App Store. According to Arment, the update he sent over worked just fine, so he quickly complained to Apple about the issue. Within a couple of hours, a new, reliable update was distributed and the problem was addressed.

"I haven't yet received a response from App Review, so I don't know whether the fix was because I made noise, or simply because time passed, which may, for instance, expire a cache with the bad data," Arment wrote in a blog post yesterday. "The only fix for people with bad copies, once good copies are being served again by the App Store, is to delete and reinstall the app."

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