A few simple tips could help protect Web surfers from a low-tech tactic used by high-tech thieves: disguise. Hackers have found ways to impersonate banks online, to pretend to be your social networking acquaintances and even to disguise themselves as long-lost friends. It's all in an effort to spread computer viruses and other malicious software that allow criminals to hijack personal information, trick users into purchasing fake anti-virus programs and more. Fortunately, some basic safe-surfing practices and the right security software can help keep you safe. Looks Can Be Deceiving. Always visit banking and financial sites directly, not through links you receive via e-mail. Such links often take you to Web sites that look exactly like your bank's but are actually clever forgeries that steal whatever passwords or account numbers you enter.
Rogue software has glided onto the Internet as of last November confounded the efforts of top security experts to eliminate the program and trace its origins and purpose, exposing serious weaknesses in the world’s digital infrastructure. The program, known as Conficker, uses flaws in Windows software to co-opt machines and link them into a virtual computer that can be commanded remotely by its authors. With more than five million of these zombies now under its control — government, business and home computers in more than 200 countries — this shadowy computer has power that dwarfs that of the world’s largest data centers. Alarmed by the program’s quick spread after its debut in November, computer security experts from industry, academia and government joined forces in a highly unusual collaboration. They decoded the program and developed antivirus software that erased it from millions of the computers. But Conficker’s persistence and sophistication has squelched the belief of many experts that such global computer infections are a thing of the past.
