Police Show Up Only to Find Infected WebTVs.
Published:
23 July 2002 y., Tuesday
A new e-mail virus has hit some WebTV devices, and its effects could have ramifications for the emergency phone network.
Reports of the virus first surfaced in WebTV user group boards such as WebTV's alt.discuss news group.
Those reports say that once the infected attachment is opened, the WebTV shuts down, reboots, then calls 911. Several people have reported this happening and then having a police officer show up at their door.
A customer service supervisor at Microsoft confirms that 18 customers have called in to report the suspicious WebTV behavior.
WebTVs now go by the name MSNTV, but older brands still have the WebTV branding. According to Microsoft, both units are affected.
This is not the first computer virus that has modems dialing 911. In April of 2000, the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) released an advisory warning of a virus that erased hard drives and programmed the computer to dial 911. While that virus did not spread beyond a localized area, authorities are concerned that this type of virus behavior could affect emergency services.
Šaltinis:
abcnews.go.com
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 »
It was reported that yesterday Canadian Sony Ericsson internet store was attacked
more »
Worldwide mobile communication device sales to end users totaled 427.8 million units in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 19 percent from the first quarter of 2010, according to Gartner, Inc.
more »
At the Computer Human Interaction conference in B.C. this week, a team from Texas A&M University unveiled a touch screen technology they’ve been incubating for a couple of years that isn’t really a screen at all.
more »
A fully autonomous robot, Pneubron 7-11 has been created at the Hosoda Labs in Osaka University. The Pneubron robot was designed to find the link between human interactions and motor development.
more »
The ability to control objects simply by thinking about them is the subject of serious research in laboratories around the world with wheelchairs and even cars now being driven by the power of the mind. It's all very serious science, but in Japan, technologists are demonstrating that mind control can also be a lot of fun.
more »
Microsoft is planning on ramping up the amount of advertising free users of Skype see while they are making video calls and using the rest of the service.
more »
How certain was the U.S. Navy Seal team that it was Osama Bin Laden they shot, killed and buried at sea? According to a Florida company that makes biometric identification equipment, there's no doubt the Seals got their man.
more »
David Braben, the founder of Frontier Developments from Great Britain, has developed a small and very cheap computer "Raspberry Pi".
more »
Online music service Spotify is turning up the heat on Apple as it aims to create an alternative to iTunes.
more »
Kingston Queen's University specialists have developed the world's first prototype of flexible minicomputer.
more »