Start your day with intelligence. Get The OODA Daily Pulse.

Virus Designed to Steal Windows Users' Data

Hundreds of Web Sites Targeted. A new Internet virus has surfaced that allows hackers to steal passwords, credit card numbers and other personal information when someone merely visits an infected Web site, government computer security experts warned this week. Hundreds of Web sites have been targeted by the virus, which exploits flaws in Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Internet software, according to an alert issued Thursday by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), a division of the Department of Homeland Security. Infected sites were programmed to connect people using the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser to a Web site that contains code allowing hackers to record what users type, such as passwords and credit card and Social Security numbers. The code then e-mails that information to the anonymous attackers. Full Story