America Online Inc. said vandals had broken into its AOL service.
Published:
19 June 2000 y., Monday
America Online Inc. said vandals had broken into its AOL service and gained access to an undisclosed
number of member accounts, highlighting the vulnerability of even the world's largest Internet services provider to the threat of hacker attacks.
The software virus attack appeared to be similar in kind, but by no means in scale, to the ``ILOVEYOU'' virus that temporarily paralyzed tens of millions of computers last month, penetrating networks in government and companies worldwide.
``A small number of member accounts may have been illegally viewed,'' America Online spokesman Rich D'Amato said Friday. ''We are aware of claims that a small number of member accounts were illegally accessed. We take these claims seriously,'' he said.
The perpetrators of the attack targeted AOL customer service representatives with e-mails containing a ``Trojan horse'' attachment, that, when opened, created a connection to the sender's computer and allowed access to some AOL accounts.
He stressed that the hackers involved did not appear to have gained access to AOL's 23 million-member database of subscribers, or data on users of other services that include CompuServe, Netscape Netcenter, ICQ and other popular sites.
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Software company announced new structure_ of it_s business.
more »
Windows users were warned today to be on their guard for a new Trojan that poses as a racy attachment to a saucy email
more »
Global ranking of communications technology puts U.S. at No. 11, while Sweden takes top spot
more »
search.lt presents newest links
more »
Credit card harvester 'MiMail I' spreading worldwide
more »
Microsoft Corp. on Monday will announce the release of its Virtual PC technology to manufacturing
more »
search.lt presents newest links
more »
European powerhouse Vodafone Group plc announced it will begin selling BlackBerry devices and servers from Research In Motion Ltd
more »
The automotive industry will drive online spending to a projected $1.3 billion by the end of 2003, according to data from Borrell Associates Inc., representing a 15 percent increase over 2002
more »
The U.S. government doesn't have the ability to crack some sophisticated types of encryption, putting investigators of terrorism threats at a disadvantage
more »
While critics in the United States grow more concerned each day about the insecurity of electronic voting machines, Australians designed a system two years ago that addressed and eased most of those concerns
more »