EAST TEXAS (KYTX) -- Jake Lewis works as a personal assistant in Hollywood which means he's on the Internet more than 15 hours a day.
He was alarmed to hear about the computer virus that could knock thousands of people off-line. "I have all my documents, my database all stored on-line."
That's contacts, that's scheduling, that's references. The FBI has been on the case since last year when agents busted a ring of computer hackers in Estonia.
The scam infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world and controlled them through rogue servers.
The hackers would redirect people to different web sites and rack up millions of dollars in illegal fees.
The challenge for the FBI was if they shut down the hackers' servers, they'd wipe out the Internet connection for all the victims.
So instead they set up alternate servers, which took control of the infected computers. That temporary system is shutting down on Monday which means about 64,000 computers in the U.S. will be cut off.
The FBI is directing users to a special web site to see if they're infected: www.dcwg.org
The site will check for the virus and tell you how to fix it. And Lewis is in the clear.
"I'm very relieved. Knowing I won't lose my Internet on Monday. Thank God."
But many others are still at risk.
And the FBI thinks about 50 major U.S.corporations are infected as well.
Teresa Garcia, CBS News, Los Angeles
The virus is what's called malware - or malicious software. It can affect both MACs and PCs.
