Another
day, yet another internet virus
A new strain of the Bagle internet worm, dubbed Bagle.B,
has begun to spread very quickly via email. The worm appeared first in
Germany, and by Tuesday afternoon it was making its rounds in Italy,
Poland and the UK, said internet security firm F-Secure. Bagle.B installs
a backdoor function on infected computers and makes them access four web
pages, possibly to download additional software to run on the infected
machines. A backdoor allows hackers to access infected computers for
malicious purposes without their owners’ consent. Hackers can then steal
passwords, files or other sensitive information by installing
"keyloggers" on them, software that tracks and logs all of the
keys pressed on a computer keyboard. Bagle.B is programmed to stop
spreading on Feb. 25 and was probably made by the same person or group who
created the original Bagle worm found on Jan. 18, which is believed to be
linked to spammers by retrieving email addresses from the computers it
infected. These addresses could enable its author to relay spam, which
generates money for the sender by volume and through re-sale of the
address lists.
Search
soap: 'Sorry, Google, I'm with Yahoo'
According to new research from ComScore Media Metrix, web
surfers are apt to cheat on even their favorite search engines. On
average, people use two different search engines a month, and while Google
commands the greatest loyalty, even Googlers stray from time to time.
Evidence of the fickle nature of searcher loyalty can be found in
Google’s triumph over Yahoo over the past few years. Google has worn the
search king crown in recent years for its targeted search results and
uncluttered layout, while Yahoo and MSN have invested heavily in new
search technology and search formulas. Both companies are trying to win
over new search loyalists from the groups of searchers who are
dissatisfied with their first search results and are likely to try out
other providers because it is free. Search is a valuable source of ad
revenue for internet players, an expected $2 billion this year.
That's
867-530-not-gonna-happen on eBay
Bad news for
cheesy
rock fans: You can’t get that number. A Manhattan attorney by the name
of John was trying to use eBay to sell his phone number, 212-867-5309, the
number (minus the area code) that appears in the 1981 Tommy Tutone hit
song “867-5309/ Jenny.” But yesterday Verizon pulled the plug, saying
John doesn’t have the right to sell the number. No matter, he still got
a lot of attention. After a few web site postings and a mention Friday’s
“Good Morning America,” the auction skyrocketed beyond a mind-blowing
$100,000. John had acquired the number a few months ago after calling it
and finding that no one had it. He then got the number from Verizon and
has used it as a second line, hooking it up to an answering machine. Most
crank calls come on weekends, from drunk guys.
'Creek'
kids return with special online deal
If you can’t watch the daily “Dawson’s Creek”
reruns on TBS because you have to work or something, good news. Four
episodes of the former WB series from three different seasons will be
available for digital download beginning Feb. 26 at soapcity.com, priced
either at $1.99 individually or at $6.99 all together. The episodes are "Escape
from Witch Island" (Season 3), "True Love" (Season 3),
"Winter's Tale" (Season 4) and "Swan
Song" (Season 5). The stars of the teen drama launched in 1998
that told the coming-of-age story of five Capeside friends pulled the plug
on the series after six seasons, ending with a two-hour finale on May 14,
2003, that jumped two years ahead in the characters’ lives to show what
happened to them after college. “Dawson’s Creek,” along with ''Buffy
the Vampire Slayer,'' helped rocket the WB network to popularity amongst
adolescents and became the network's prototype: a show about teen troubles
and a good-looking cast.
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