I've often wondered what, if anything, can be done to stop hackers. They are probably responsible for most of this site's crashes, for example. There is a new type of hacker, moreover, that holds one's computer hostage for money:

A new kind of malware circulating on the Internet freezes a computer and then asks for a ransom paid through the Western Union Holdings money transfer service.

(Later in the Article)

Once run, the Trojan freezes the computer, displaying a message saying files are being deleted every 30 minutes. It then gives instructions on how to send $10.99 via Western Union to free the computer.

Hitting the control, alt, and delete keys will not affect the bug, the virus writer warns. Sophos provides further details at its Web site.

The virus writer even offers tech support, Cluley said. If the method of unlocking the computer doesn't work after the money is sent, the virus writer promises to research the problem and includes an e-mail address.

Last month, a Trojan emerged that encrypts a user's documents and then leaves a file demanding $300 in exchange for the password to access the information. Victims were instructed to send money to one of 99 accounts run by e-gold, a company that runs a money transfer site.

The password, however, was contained on the infected computer. Sophos cracked it and publicly released it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/2006...pcworld/125569

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"I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased- short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed." (Max Beerbohm)

Being finnish and using linux does make life somewhat easier.. One can recognize the garbage post from the language and you don't need to care about viruses or worms.. All though, neither of the systems is truly secure..

- BtD

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"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
[George Orwell, 1984]

Hate to break it to you, this has been around a very long time. You have become a victim of a slow news day! Congratulations =)

Hackers scare me.
Not because I worry about the safety of my computer.
But because they threaten the anarchy of the Internet by offering reason for stricter and stricter controls. They not only threaten this site on the software level, but may bring about the wrath that destroys the freedom we have on this site.

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside