* subscribe at http://techPolice.com Copyright 2001 New Scientist, Reed Business Information Alien virus invades PCs Hazel Muir A SCAM is sullying the hunt for alien intelligence. Someone is using a computer virus to cheat in the SETI@home project, in which home PCs crunch data from radio telescopes to look for signs of alien life. With the SETI@home program installed, your PC sifts through a block of data and returns the results to a processing centre. More than 3 million people have signed up, and anyone who processes a lot of data may see their name posted on the SETI@home Web page as "Cruncher of the Week". Now someone has written a virus that allows them to cheat. The virus spreads to computers through Microsoft Outlook and shuts down antivirus software. It downloads the SETI@home software and sets it up to perform work for the virus writer's account. Eric Chien, chief researcher at the Internet security company Symantec's European lab in the Netherlands, says the virus has only infected a handful of computers. He adds that it would be easy for the people running distributed computing projects such as SETI@home to spot the culprit and shut down their account. "Someone might be sending data for one account from millions of machines all over the world," he says. "That's very unlikely to be legitimate." David Anderson, director of SETI@home, says it would be possible to prevent the virus working by adding a step to the installation process so that it cannot be done remotely. "But this is harder than it sounds, and it would make life difficult for people who legitimately install SETI@home on large numbers of computers remotely," he says. "I don't think we'll do this." For more science news see http://www.newscientist.com ============================================================ Half.com is the Smartest Place to Buy & Sell your CDs, DVDs Books, & Games! Get killer deals on over 10 million items priced up to 50-90% off. Plus get $5 off your 1st purchase. http://click.topica.com/caaacuMb1dhr0b2EDp2f/half ============================================================ --via http://techPolice.com archive: http://theMezz.com/cybercrime/archive subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --via http://theMezz.com ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?b1dhr0.b2EDp2 Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
