Privacy, Hacking and Virus Alerts

Computer scientists in Menlo Park are releasing a free diagnostic program today to help network administrators find PCs infected with an insidious new type of virus that has already tainted millions of computers and used them to generate billions of spam e-mails.

What began as a ninth-grade prank, a way to trick already-suspicious friends who had fallen for his earlier practical jokes, has earned Rich Skrenta notoriety as the first person ever to let loose a personal computer virus.

"We’re assuming it is a large number. It could easily be in the millions."

There has been a security alert at the online job Web site Monster.com after hackers stole 1.6 million online records from the Internet recruiter, including the personal information of several hundred thousand job seekers.

Cyber crooks are targeting a wave of new attacks at people searching for jobs online, security experts warn. Oddly enough, the criminals behind this scam appear to be just as interested in hiring you as they are in hijacking your PC.

Researchers are warning universities that they’re at risk of being hit with massive distributed denial-of-service attacks when they scan their own networks.

Storm worm attacks have always come in the form of massive e-mail campaigns, but researchers have spotted the attackers creating malicious Web sites.

"Looking at these massive samples of malware, we can’t help [but] think that there’s something brewing in Russia."

Cyber tricksters are luring curious users to open a malicious attachment by promising nude photos of celebrity beauties. Instead of pictures, they get a Trojan downloader.

The massive Storm worm attack has built a botnet of 1.7 million computers — large enough to unleash a highly damaging denial-of-service attack, researchers fear.