10,000 sites hijacked

MORE THAN 10,000 Web sites were hijacked last week because Volish security experts did not release a patch for a serious flaw.

The flaw is the usual security story. It lets the bad guys take over victims' machines merely by tricking them into visiting poisoned websites.

According to AV software outfit Trend Micro more than 10,000 sites were poisoned with code that exploits the flaw last week.

The sites are mostly Chinese and will steal passwords for computer games, which are sold. Not a big problem if you are not in China, but Paul Ferguson, a Trend Micro security researcher warned that the hole could be "adopted by more financially-motivated criminals for more serious mayhem - that's a big fear right now."

Vole said that it is investigating the flaw and is considering fixing it through an emergency software patch. Currently it has a system of workarounds which are a bit too complicated for most users.

Trend has gone as far as saying that punters should probably use another browser until the threat is gone. µ

L'Inq
AP