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Cyber crooks target Texas National Guard

Texas residents are facing another hurricane -albeit on a virtual scale - following revelations that hackers have compromised the website of the Texas National Guard.

The attack, which the organisation has confirmed, was made public by Czech-based security vendor AVG Technologies chief research officer Roger Thompson, according to Computer World.

According to Thompson, visitors to some of the Texas National Guard's pages are redirected to a website that tries to trick users into paying money for fake online security software.

"If you're not patched, when you close your browser, you find that your desktop has changed," he said.

"This machine is now hopelessly nailed, and code has been installed in the background, and their pitch is that they'll remove it for a mere $49.95 (£28), and insert your credit card number here, please," he added.

The news comes following a recent warning from the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team and internet security firm Sans that phishing scams related to recent hurricanes in the US such as Gustav were set to increase.

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