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A computer virus is alive and well on the International Space Station (ISS). Nasa has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG. The worm was first detected on Earth in August 2007 and lurks on infected machines waiting to steal login names for popular online games. Nasa said it was not the first time computer viruses had travelled into space and it was investigating how the machines were infected. Orbital outbreak Space news website SpaceRef broke the story about the virus on the laptops that astronauts took to the ISS....

PLEASE READ - Malicious email If you receive an email with any of the following subjet lines, please delete the email immediately.

Mac users targeted by financially-motivated hackers for the first timeIT security and control firm, Sophos, has published its Security Threat Report 2008 examining the threat landscape over the previous twelve months, and predicting emerging cybercrime trends for 2008. The report reveals that in 2007 organised criminal gangs for the first time arrived at Apple's doorstep with the intention of stealing money. With proof that hackers are extending their efforts beyond Windows, Sophos is warning computer users of all operating systems not to be complacent about security. Sophos experts note that malware for Macs has been seen before, but until recently,...

Computer virus uses European storms to spread quickly Fri Jan 19, 10:47 AM ET A computer virus has made use of storms sweeping across Europe to infect email systems and spread rapidly before dying down, a Finnish IT security company has said. The virus appeared in emails with the subject line "230 dead as storm batters Europe" and attachments bearing names such as "Full Clip.exe", "Full Story.exe", "Read More.exe" and "Video.exe". The programme infects computers when users click on the message. "A significant network attack was launched globally in the early hours of Thursday morning using news of a European...

A lot of readers emailed about a new Iranian web site that purports to be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s blog, and a lot of other blogs have linked to it. But before you click through to the site (from somewhere else, I won’t post the link here), make sure your virus prevention software is up to date—because it may try to exploit a weakness in Internet Explorer to install a “back door” in your computer: Pres. Ahmadinejad trying to infect Israelis with web viruses? http://olehgirl.blogspot.com/2006/08/pres-ahmadinejad-trying-to-infect.html

A day after Microsoft posted a dozen patches for Windows and Office, the one pegged by security analysts as the most dangerous is being used in attacks, the federal cyber-agency said.

In a rare alert, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has urged Windows users to plug a potential worm hole in the Microsoft operating system. You can view the DHS Press Release here

File-share can be a dangerous business, or so Japanese government agencies are finding out the hard way. Two weeks after the country's Maritime Self-Defense Force found out that some highly classified information had been posted on the World Wide Web for all to read as a result of a programming error in its file-sharing Winny system, a slew of other agencies are finding similar problems. Winny itself is a peer-to-peer file-sharing program that has been charged with violating copyright laws in Japan. It has, however, proved to be popular with much of the population because of its cheap cost and...

The dream of a connected world where PCs and mobile phones can communicate with the digital home and other devices is supposed to make life easier. But it could instead make life far more dangerous if malware developers have their way.

For the last two days, every time I visit Drudge, my computer gets hijacked by some pop-up virus. Am I the only one? I have to put the Yahoo-toolbar virus scanner on it and it tells me I got a Trojan horse hijacking my computer. It does get rid of it, but what's going on? Can someone please proof me wrong, so I can look for the cause somewhere else? Or have you experienced it too. Is drudge out of money or something to allow this scumware to infect his readers' computers?

I received the following email today: hi, [my email user name], I have been receiving this email from [my email address] for a long time which has had a virus in it. My anti-virus has detected it and cleaned it but it seems that you are unable to keep your computer clean from this virus. I'm starting to get a little tired of getting viruses from your computer and/or email address. If you do not clean your system soon, your ISP (Internet Service Providor) will be contacted and told about how your computer has been mailing me viruses for weeks....

update Major Internet search engines were crippled Monday morning by a variant of the MyDoom worm, rendering Google inaccessible to many users and slowing results from Yahoo. The attack also affected smaller engines, including Alta Vista, a Yahoo subsidiary, and Lycos. Google representatives confirmed that the MyDoom worm affected performance of the search engine, but, despite numerous e-mail complaints received by News.com, said the attack had a limited impact. "At no point was the Google Web site significantly impaired, and service for all users and networks is expected to be restored shortly," the company said in a statement. A Lycos...

First Windows CE virus emerges Virus known as 'Dust' demonstrates holes in Win CE running on ARM processors By David Legard, IDG News Service A virus designed to demonstrate security holes in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows CE operating system but not to cause damage was identified by security companies over the weekend. The WinCE4.Duts.A virus (sometimes known as Dust) only affects devices running ARM Ltd. processors and infects Pocket PC PE files in the root directory, according to Bucharest-based Softwin S.R.L., which first reported the virus on Saturday. It raises a dialog box which asks "Dear User, am I allowed to...

Special to CNET News.com Computer security experts fear a new worm that began spreading rapidly across Australian e-mail networks on Sunday could be a rehearsal for a more concerted attack in coming weeks. The worm--dubbed Bagle-A--carries an expiration date, possibly indicating that more robust versions of the worm could be slated for release soon, said Daniel Zatz, security director for Computer Associates Australia. While Bagle-A is already successful--responsible for an 80 percent increase in queries to CA's help desk and in virus submissions to rival computer security company Sophos--the current version of the worm contains bugs, Zatz said. Comparing Bagle...

It's time once again for Keyboard Korner, the computer advice column that uses simple, jargon-free terminology that even an idiot like you can grasp; the column that shows you how to take command of your personal computer, even if that means reducing it to tiny smoking shards with a hatchet. Today on Keyboard Korner we will address a very important topic: computer security. If you own a computer, or have touched a computer, or have ever shaken hands with somebody who might have touched a computer, you need to take precautionary measures NOW. Because modern cyberspace is not the friendly,...

I sat dont at my station over an hour ago and responded to an Explorer upgrade option without thinking. This ISN'T a normal option, it was simply a pop-up. Without thinking I responded to upgrade and downloaded a nightmare. I have yet to break this. It consists of an additional bar which creates a new home page, http://find.intelius.com with files I've deleted in addition to wwd.ieplugin[1] - and proceeds to iniate infinite pop-ups of EVERY type out of http://www.n-case.com. ANYTHING internet related will be tattooed with the new bar. View - Toolbars - Intelligent Explorer" will eliminate the bar from...

Alert Alert The conservative website NewsMax www.newsmax.com places spybots on any visitor to it URL site. I just installed my spybot software 10 days ago. As I travels to my favorite watering holes, suprise visiting newsmax website alarm bells indicated targetnet spybot was trying to load. Every time I visited newsmax over the last 10 days newsmax tried to load the spybot targetnet during load up of newsmax URL. If you are enraged by this spying let newsmax know.

<p>It turns out that SoBig.F is even less original than previously thought.</p> <p>The self-updating capability that had anti-virus experts, users and even the FBI scrambling this weekend was in fact present in some of the earlier versions of the virus, albeit in a somewhat less advanced form.</p>

Rail traffic throughout the Southeast was slowly returning to normal Wednesday afternoon after a computer virus disrupted CSX's telecommunications network which some systems use to control signaling, dispatching and other systems. As a result, passenger and freight train traffic was halted immediately, including the morning commuter train service in metropolitan Washington, D.C. The Jacksonville-based rail line said the cause was believed to be a worm virus similar to those that have infected the systems of other major companies and agencies in recent days. The signaling system went down about 1:15 a.m. and briefly affected the entire CSX system, which covers...

The latest variant of the SoBig lineage has mulitple infection vectors and hidden exploit channels. For example, spam normally represents 30 to 60 percent of daily e-mail volume on the Internet. The new capabilities embedded in the SoBig.E worm will increase that volume by a factor of 10. The SoBig.E worm , released two months ago on the Internet, continues to spread from unprotected computers. Some Internet security analysts fear that this latest variant of the SoBig family -- much like possible future variants of the new Microsoft Blaster or LovSan worm that began to proliferate early this week --...