World News
The Internet is infected by malicious computer hackers who have been creating more and more weapons that they plant on the Internet. They call their weapons viruses and worms - they're creepy, crawly toxic software that contaminate our computers without our ever knowing it. You can be infected by simply visiting your favorite Web site, or just by leaving your computer on, overnight while you're asleep.
And the problem is growing, exponentially. Last year the number of infections tripled. And an entire industry of computer security professionals is in a race to keep the hackers from their goal, which is usually to steal your money.
One of the most dangerous threats ever, a computer worm known as "Conficker," is spreading through the Internet right now. By some estimates, 10 million computers have been infected worldwide.
Anti-virus software, engineers have been tracking Conficker it started to show up since last November as it worms its way across the globe.
All of the known infections of Conficker have been tracked across the world, explained a Symantec vice president who says the worm is now living on millions of computers, mainly in corporations.
So far, the bad guys who created it haven't triggered Conficker. It's just sitting out there like a sleeper cell. awaiting instructions.
It's that ominous, because once the hackers issue instructions, Conficker could turn menacing in an instant.
With one click, the worm's creator can instruct it to suck sensitive data, like bank passwords and account numbers, out of millions of computers, or launch a massive spam attack to clog up the works.
The Internet has become a minefield. Hackers have hidden their malicious software known as "malware" on some of the most trusted Web sites, like eBay, the Miami Dolphins football team, even my.barackobama.com.
Google has been asked what they're doing to deal with these big problems, because their search engine is what most people use to surf the net.
One of the founding fathers of the Internet and now a vice president at Google says. The company itself says that one in every 100 Google searches brings up an infected site.
"I have heard that, and I think that's a very bizarre way of looking at things," the vice president replied.
Google's position is that it's not the policeman of the Internet, but its engineers do scour the Web and issue warnings about malicious infections, or malware.
One of the hackers, who calls himself "Tempest," is just 14 years old and working fulltime. "So he can't legally drive a car and he can't join the army, but he can hack into banks and siphon money out," Jackson remarked.
It’s not known who's behind the computer worm Conficker, whether it’s a gang of Russian hackers or some solitary evil genius. This worm is wily - it keeps mutating. Security software companies have been kept very busy.
Conficker investigators have been talking about an April Fool's attack, because in dissecting the worm, they can see it's been programmed to receive new instructions on April 1. But nobody knows if the instructions will be benign, or something that could disrupt the entire Internet.
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