Spam e-mails containing BBC news stories are being used to attract cyber victims, the news organization reports.
According to the BBC, online criminals are exploiting a flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and deploying keyloggers. Security firm Websense has been issued the original alert on this threat.
The BBC reported that when an individual clicks the link to read a BBC article in an e-mail, they are taken to a fake Web site.
This fake Web site installs software on their computer called a keylogger, which could then monitor the financial activity of that individual.
Microsoft plans to release a security update on April 11 to address the flaw.
"We have had people creating spoof pages of our site before," said Steve Herrmann, editor of the BBC News Web site in the Friday's BBC article. "But using them in this way to attack people's online security is particularly troubling to us and a cause for serious concern."
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
Related stories:
The Web: Reaching an inflection point
Is the Web becoming "disruptive" once again? That is, is it vigorously stirring things up as it did when it first came on the commercial scene back in the mid-90s? Experts tell UPI's The Web that the second generation of the Web, the so-called Web 2.0, is indeed doing just that.
MySpace, Google among '06 Webby winners
The winners of the 10th Annual Webby Awards were announced Tuesday; among them were Myspace.com, The Onion, Google, and the BBC. The Webby Awards from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences honors excellence in Web design, functionality, and creativity every year.
U.K. biometric ID card faces questions
The introduction of biometric national identification cards to the United Kingdom now seems like an inevitability. Yet doubts have been raised by a committee in the House of Commons itself about whether existing technology is actually able to handle the ID card scheme, due to be implemented in 2008.
Probing Question: Are water wars in our future?
Schoolkids know that over 70 percent of Earth's surface is washed in water. Yet very little of that abundance — less than two percent — is available for drinking and agriculture. Over the last 50 years, moreover, freshwater use has tripled as global population has doubled, leading to scarcities in many regions of the globe. According to the United Nations, over 1.1 billion of the world's people lack access to a clean water supply.
Gone Missing CDs: Personal & Financial Data Solutions
The collaborative efforts of Hitachi, NTT and Tokyo University have come up with means to protect secure data stored on CDs. The problem is illustrated by recent gone missing CDs, holding citizens private information collected by governmental agencies.
BBC survey: Humans cause global warming
A British Broadcasting Corp. poll finds 79 percent of people in 21 nations believe human activity causes global warming.
Software allows amateurs to compose professional-looking music sports videos
Although currently the composition of music sports videos requires a tech-savvy professional with an artist’s touch, the future may enable any amateur to create their own personalized video using software in the works by a group of scientists. With its fully or semi-automatic modes, the system would turn a tedious, time-consuming, and skilled task into a hobbyist’s evening activity.
Blinkx to lead in video search engine
When it comes to video searching on the Net, blinkx is big. Deeming itself the smartest and largest video search engine on the Web, blinkx.tv delivers 4 million hours of searchable content -- audio, video, and TV via RSS -- and boast more content than Google Video and Yahoo.