On Monday, the Feds (the Fuzz, the G-Men, the Heat, the Coppers) will kick lots of people off the internet when they shut off access to computers infected the DNSChanger virus.

Here’s how the scam worked, according to the CBC:

The FBI, in association with international law enforcement, managed to track and apprehend six Estonians using an ostensibly legitimate front company who had organized a sophisticated system of false DNS servers.
These servers rerouted the web browsers of infected computers to sites of the hackers’ own choosing, some of which were fraudulent in nature.
Computers were forced to connect to the internet through these servers by a customized virus called DNSChanger that was distributed along conventional channels, such as infected emails, bad websites, and malware scripts.

Since that bust, the FBI has been running the servers benignly but they’re now going to pull the plug even though hundreds of thousands of people never managed to clean up their computers. As of July 9th, if those people want to get online, they’re going to have to get the virus off their machines.

The Gummint says the baddies netted $20 million over the life of the scam. But now they’re headed to the hoosegow, the pokey, the clink, the Graybar Hotel, the joint.

To find out if your computer is one of the affected, go to the FBI’s DNS website.