Newhouse A1: "Keeping safe on the Internet used to seem simple: Don't open strange files and attachments sent with e-mail messages.
Ah, the good old days.
During the past year, technology professionals say, the computer netherworld has grown more devious, resourceful and organized. Honing an expanded arsenal of sinister tricks -- ploys with bizarre names such as 'phishing,' 'pharming' and 'drive-by downloads' -- digital bad guys have turned the world of Web sites into a virtual hall of mirrors.
Search engines can be fooled to spit back nefarious information. Music, video and photo files have been seeded with malicious software. The mere act of visiting a Web site can make your personal computer sick.
And no longer is it just your PC at risk. As digital technology reaches into living room entertainment centers, the car in your driveway and the Internet-connected refrigerator of the future, nasty folks are finding additional opportunities to hack into your life for fun and, increasingly, for profit.
Next-generation viruses are targeting hand-held computers and mobile phones. Some cell phones can get infected if you simply walk too close to another infected phone. One bug dials itself to all your contacts, running up everyone's bill. Another ruins your mobile phone. A virus in Japan has caused cell phones to flood emergency lines with calls.
Wireless Internet networks pose especially juicy targets. Electronic hackers (dubbed 'evil twins') can mimic your Wi-Fi access service, intercepting everything sent from your laptop at the local cyber cafe, where coffee is served along with wireless Internet access.
'Wireless is growing ... more quickly than the security guys can devise solutions,' said Wade Trappe, a professor at Rutgers University's Wireless Information Network Labo"
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