Internet malware effect limited

The day that was supposed to see thousands of people knocked off the Internet arrived Monday, but the impact appeared to be limited.

Thousands of Internet users waited too long or simply didn't believe warnings that they would lose access to the Internet just after midnight because of malware that took over computers around the world more than a year ago.

At 12:01 a.m. yesterday, the FBI turned off Internet servers that were functioning as a temporary safety net to keep infected computers online for the past eight months.

A court order the agency had gotten to keep the servers running expired and was not renewed.

Considering there are millions of Internet users across the country, several thousand losing access isn't a big deal -- unless you are one of them.

On Long Island, Cablevision Systems Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., both Internet service providers, each reported few customer problems.

He added the company did not receive a significant number of calls Monday from customers worried about the bug. (Cablevision owns Newsday.)

Verizon spokesman John J. Bonomo said the company informed customers about the computer threat via email, telephone and postal mail. "We are continuing our strong, concerted and multipronged outreach to what's a very small number of Verizon customers."