Intellectual Property Law

SF Chronicle: Pray Hackers Don't Get You

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

You may not want to click on the San Francisco Chronicle's web site. Your life savings, identity and first-born are at risk.

At least that's what the newspaper is reporting is likely to happen when surfing the internet.

We all assume certain risks using the internet, the same risks we take in trusting the mail carrier, the driver next to you on the highway and the cable company where we send our monthly check. "Is any Web site safe? No way to be sure," screams the banner headline on Tuesday's print edition.

The headline on the web version is a tad tamer: "Internet criminals gaining ground, experts say."

And if you haven't already cancelled your internet subscription, the story notes that the "goal" of hackers "is to steal and sell personal information to conduct identity theft and sometimes extortion."

The Chronicle print story concludes that to be safe, get your computer "checked out by an expert."

Advice: Pray the expert doesn't secretly install malware.

Photo AntonOlsen

See Also:

• Leaked Documents Show German Police Attempting to Hack Skype
• New York Hack Hacked
• Security Guru Gives Hackers a Taste of Their Own Medicine
• Al Gore's Web Site Suffers An Inconvenient Hack
• MediaDefender's "Swedish" Hackers Attempted to Hack AG Computer
• GSM Security Researcher Targeted in Airport Shakedown

Full post as published by Threat Level on May 07, 2008 (boomark / email).