Tag: VIRUS

The world's first PC virus, known as 'Brain,' was brought to life 25 years ago by two brothers in Pakistan. Mikko Hypponen, a researcher at F-Secure, was among the first to analyze Brain, and, after reverse engineering the virus, eventually discovered a hidden nugget of information. Buried within Brain's code was a short block of text, which revealed the phone number and address of the place ...

His acting career may be on life support, but Charlie Sheen, believe it or not, is still not dead. And any Facebook post that says otherwise is just a silly virus. The scam is spreading through posts that begin with attention-grabbing headlines like, "Exclusive Video," "RIP!" or "Breaking News," followed by "Charlie Sheen found Dead at his House!", or something equally sensational. Accompanying ...

We're sure you're all familiar with Conficker, but that's just one blip in the long and storied history of computer viruses. F-Secure put together a nine-minute video tracing the evolution of viruses from the very first (Brain), to non-destructive joke viruses of the early '90s (Walker), all the way up to the nuclear plant-crippling cyber-weapons (Stuxnet). ...

We've all seen our fair share of Facebook-based viruses, but a newly released study from security software manufacturer BitDefender reminds us just how vulnerable we are when using the social network. According to the study, 20-percent of all Facebook users are exposed to malware as they troll through their friends' news feeds. The report defines "malware" as any post that, when clicked, ...

Sophos rolled out some free anti-virus software today, giving Mac users a brand new way to guard against the small percentage of malware actually designed to target their systems. While the company's new Anti-Virus Home Edition for Mac is designed to detect and defuse malware aimed at Mac operating systems, it can also pick up on malware that's written for Windows, and is spread via USB drives ...

Usually, flash games are known for punchy bursts of quick n'dirty, button-mashing gameplay -- but sometimes we crave more than a short fix. That's the theme for this week's crop of browser-based strategy games: these titles force us to juggle a multitude of complex tasks and intricate systems, each rife with addictive experiences. Of course, the hardest part of playing will be getting back to ...

The U.S. may not be the superpower it once was, but, when it comes to botnets, at least, we're still number one. According to Microsoft's newly released ninth Security Intelligence Report, more than 2.2 million computers in the U.S. fell prey to botnets in the first six months of 2010, substantially more than second-ranked Brazil, home to 550,000 infected computers. South Korea, however, has the ...

If you've received any suspicious-looking e-mails from LinkedIn recently, you may have been targeted by the latest Trojan attack to hit inboxes. The malicious e-mails, which targeted billions of Windows users yesterday, seemed like normal LinkedIn invitations from random contacts. And, like most LinkedIn invites, the messages asked users to click a link to confirm the request. Instead of sending ...

Officials in Iran have confirmed that the Stuxnet super worm has infected personal computers at one of the country's nuclear power plants, just a few days after cyber-security experts warned the public that the malware might be targeting Tehran's nuclear facilities. Mahmoud Jafari, who leads Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant, told the IRNA news agency that authorities at the plant are currently trying ...

An awe-inspiringly complex piece of malware named 'Stuxnet' has some security experts openly wondering whether or not it's the most sophisticated worm ever to hit the planet. Others are speculating that it may be used to target a nuclear plant in Iran. Although the worm originally popped up in June, when it attacked Windows PCs operating industrial control systems, cyber experts are only now ...

According to a new study from McAfee, searching for "free" things online can significantly increase your chances of landing on a site with malicious software. In the report (PDF), McAfee addresses the "true cost of free entertainment," suggesting that searches for free music or ringtones can increase the chances of finding a malicious site by 300-percent, while searching for the lyrics of a ...

Highlights from this morning's big tech headlines... Sunday, a hacker known as 'Iraq Resistance' posted a YouTube video taking credit for the 'Here You Have' e-mail virus that flooded global e-mail systems last week. [From: YouTube, via: PC World] According to the Wall Street Journal, GoDaddy.com, the Web hosting and domain registration site known for its classy Super Bowl commercials, is ...

Share Yesterday afternoon, a massive virus hit e-mail accounts across the world, including those at major corporations like ABC/Disney, Google, Coca-Cola and NASA. According to ABC News, the trojan virus spread through e-mails with subject lines that read 'Here You Have,' while other versions of the worm were hidden under subject lines like 'This is The Free Dowload Sex Movies,you can find it ...

Cameron Diaz has won an award! (And no, we're not talking about her Teen Choice Award for Most Disgusting Scene in 'There's Something About Mary.') Computer security giant McAfee has named Diaz the most dangerous celebrity on the Internet, due to the massive amount of malware associated with her name. According to McAfee, you have a one in ten chance of stumbling on adware and viruses when ...

Never let it be said that computer hackers don't have a sense of humor. Masato Nakatsuji has been arrested by Tokyo authorities for authoring the Ika-tako virus, which replaces the files on a target computer with images of squid, octopi and sea urchins. The virus has infected somewhere between 20,000 and 50,000 computers through the Winny file-sharing network. The malware disguises itself as a ...