DevTopics

Security experts have joined forces to hunt down the Conficker C computer worm and prevent it from damaging millions of computers on April Fool’s Day.  They are motivated in part by a $250,000 bounty from Microsoft for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the responsible hacker(s).

“We love catching bad guys,” said Alvin Estevez, CEO of Enigma Software Group, one of many companies trying to break the Conficker virus.  “We’re like former hackers who like to catch other hackers.  To us, we get almost a feather in our cap to be able to knock out that worm.  We slap each other five when we’re killing those infections.”

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A virus has infected some laptop computers aboard the International Space Station.  The low-risk virus, designed to swipe passwords from online gamers, was identified as the W32.Gammima.AG worm. 

"This is basically a nuisance," said NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries.  An investigation is underway to determine how the virus got on board the space station, which is floating more than 200 miles above the Earth.  "We’ll do our best to track down how it got there and close that gateway," Humphries said.  "This is not a frequent occurrence but we have had viruses that have made their way on board before."

Only a handful of the 71 laptops currently on board the space station run Windows.  Those laptops will likely be updated with the newest patches and anti-virus software, something you think NASA officials would have done long ago.

Read more at Space.com

If you’re one of thousands of Simpsons fans who added ChunkyLover53 as an AOL Instant Messenger buddy, your computer may be at risk from a Turkish botnet.

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