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Government websites infected by virus

Key government and consumer websites have been the target of attacks from cyber crooks and now pose online threats to anyone who visits them, reports the Times.

The NHS website is among more than a thousand in the UK that have been infected by the Asprox computer virus which has experts concerned as it represents a change of style by online crooks.

Previous viruses have relied on email and dodgy websites to spread but Asprox lies undetected on mainstream sites and automatically downloads itself on to the computers of consumers visiting infected sites.

"Five years ago when your computer got infected by a virus, you noticed immediately that your PC was broken. These days, you don't notice anything," said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technical officer of Finjan, an online security company.

He described the rapid spread of Asprox as very serious saying it gives hackers complete control over infected machines.

Experts predict that at least two million sites worldwide may have been infected allowing hackers access to personal and financial information.

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