The intruder appears relatively harmless--and now halted--but raises security concerns.

Google's Orkut social networking site appeared to have been hit by a relatively harmless worm, but one that demonstrated the continuing vulnerability of Web applications.

Some Orkut users received an e-mail telling them they had been sent a new scrapbook entry -- a type of Orkut message -- on their profile from another Orkut user.

They only had to view their profile to become infected by the worm, which added them to an Orkut group, "Infectados pelo Vírus do Orkut," wrote the blogger Kee Hinckley on his site TechnoSocial.

Full story: pcworld.com 

Labels: hackers, Network, Orkut, social, worm

BitDefender, a Romanian-based online security company, has discovered a new form of Trojan malware that literally hijacks Google’s AdWords, or text-based advertisements, and replaces them with ads from other third-party sites, causing the company to lose money due to it via its click-through advertising.

The malicious software, Trojan.Qhost.WU, does this by changing details in the infected computer’s files causing it to point to a new web address rather than display Google’s AdWords.

“This is a serious situation that damages users and webmasters alike,” said Attila-Mihaly Balazs, a BitDefender virus analyst.

Full story: siliconrepublic.com 

Labels: ADWords, hackers, malicious, malware

Security researcher Robert Hansen has slammed Google over its response to an email he sent about a vulnerability that could allow hackers to use gmodules.com for phishing attacks. The domain is used by Google to host Google Gadgets.

Google Gadgets are small applications that can be placed on your desktop to show information such as new email, weather, time, photos and news.

Read more: blorge.com 

Labels: Gadgets, hackers, phishing