Era of the computer virus began as a prank 25 years ago
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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.
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It's the socio-economy, stupid Central America, India, China and Africa are likely to become the hotspots of malware production and cybercrime over the next five years, according to an analysis by net security firm F-secure.â¦
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As infected images plant back doors on PCs, experts see possibility of virus too.
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Gasoline and milk aren&#39;t the only things that cost more these days. The cost of keeping your antivirus software current has been rising, also.
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A computer virus posing as an electronic Christmas card is spreading across the net.
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Experts agree: 2004 was the best of times, and the worst of times for those concerned about IT security. It was a year with high-profile arrests of virus authors, and the explosion of online crimes, from cyberextortion to identity theft, a year in which ISPs (Internet service providers) won millions in damages from spammers, and spam messages increased by 40 percent.
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The IT industry&#39;s war against virus writers has seen battles won on both sides this year. Sven Jaschan, the 18-year-old German responsible for spreading 70 per cent of viruses in the first six months of 2004
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In 1995, the first warning was raised: The throngs of people swarming to the Internet would overwhelm the system in 1996. For more than a decade, that fear has proven untrue.
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The number of attempted attacks by computer viruses rocketed in the first half of the year, according to a report published today.
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In the first column of this year, I discussed computer security outlook and hopes for 2008. I forecast more of the same that we saw in 2007: more spam, more malware, more bad guys basically owning the Internet and our connected computers. I don't see any trends or new leaders with significant power to change the status quo.
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Hackers are close to finding a way to spread harmful computer viruses just by getting people to open an e-mail message or visiting an infected Web site, computer security experts warned yesterday. -washingtonpost.com
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EDITOR&#39;S NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series on the spyware epidemic. NEW YORK - David Eckstein turned on his computer one day and launched his Web browser, just as he had every day.
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The Story: Even when there?s good news on the security front, there always seems to be bad news to balance it out. And while we think this news is important for you to know, it?s not an exception to the Good News/Bad News Syndrome.[ Slideshow: 2007's top underreported tech stories ]                                                    The use of e-mail-borne executable virus attachments dropped sharply in 2007. In particular, spammers have dialed back their use of so-called image spam, which tricks filters by embedding text within an attached image.According to IronPort Systems, outbreaks of viruses embedded in e-mail attachments totaled 860 in 2006 and 844 in 2005. But as of mid-October 2007, attacks totaled just 360. Dave Mayer, an IronPort product manager, said it?s likely that outbreaks will total 450 by the end of the year ? a drop of 47 percent. It appears that evildoers are moving on: ?Traditional viruses have been around for years, a long enough time to harden defenses against malicious attachments,? he said.Earlier in the year, IronPort, Symantec, and McAfee all noted that image spam, which appeared about two years ago, is waning, now that defenses have improved. Filters have now gotten better at scanning the contents of the attachments, leading spammers to link instead to images elsewhere.Mayer, whose company specializes in e-mail and Web security, says spammers are now placing those images on free photo-sharing sites ? the ones people use to send vacation photos to friends and family ? and embedding links to those images in their junk messages. These are difficult for spam filters to block because the same sites are used for legitimate photos as well.But as the abuse of e-mail attachments has declined, other types of threats have escalated. For example, outbreaks of macro viruses, aimed at Office-type applications, have risen by 50 percent to 60 percent while URL viruses climbed by at least 250 percent this year, IronPort found.The Bottom Line: It often seems as if the number of threats that you must be on guard against only increases, stretching your resources past the limits. But the truth is that threat profiles change over time, and some things you may be investing in are no longer as great a threat or are now handled by the tools you have in place. So, although you can?t get lax about security, you can focus more on newer threats.Complete list of 2007 underreported tech stories: 1.? Java is becoming the new Cobol 2.? Sun Microsystems is back in the game 3.? Hackers take aim at Mac OS X 4.? There are some threats you can worry less about 5.? Companies may have found a way around H-1B visa limits 6.? Open source?s new commercial strategy 7.? End-to-end Ethernet finally arrives 8.? Blade servers arrive for the masses 9.? BI is dead; long live BI 10. Balance of power shifts to software buyers
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Technique claims to be able to stop Internet worms within milliseconds of an outbreak.
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Times must be getting tough for computer virus writers.
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Many unhappy returns Thursday marked the first anniversary of the infamous Storm Worm. Created by a Russian-based criminal network, the malware rapidly infected millions of PCs in Europe and North America and continues to be a problem.â¦
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The number of viruses, worms and other security threats to PCs has now passed the 100,000 mark.