Industry News Home More stories like this... RSS Feed

Hackers expose internet security issues

Computer hackers have exposed the frailty of security procedures in a number internet browsers at a recent hacking competition in Vancouver.

Attendees of the CanSecWest security conference were witness to the Pwn2Own contest which tested the abilities of individuals to hack the security protocols of browsers such as Safari, Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox.

Security researcher Charlie Miller commented: "If it wasn't for the competition, there'd still be these two bugs from this year and last year.

"Apple gets free bugs, I get money and people's computers get fixed."

In related news, the Telegraph has reported on the ten most malicious computer viruses.

The list included the Morris Worm - which in 1998 infected ten per cent of all computers connected to the internet - and the Melissa Worm, an email virus which inserted a quote from The Simpsons into Microsoft Word documents.

David L Smith, author the Melissa Worm, was later jailed for causing over $80 million-worth of damage with his creation.

PC Tools internet security, safeguards your PC against cyber threats with proactive defence. Visit www.pctools.com to upgrade your protection