Hackers Cook Time's Most- Influential Poll; Mag Shrugs

(NEWSER) - YouTube removed hundreds of pornographic videos posted to the site today in a coordinated attack, the BBC reports. The offending files, uploaded under names such as the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana, started innocently enough before turning graphic. “I'm 12 years old and what is this?” went a comment on a fraudulent video entitled “Jonas Brother Live on Stage.” More»

(NEWSER) - Time has unveiled its latest tallying of the world’s 100 most influential people, and yes, of course, Barack Obama is on it. But the other 99 choices aren’t as obvious. Bernie Madoff makes the list, as do Rush Limbaugh, George Clooney, and 4Chan’s Moot. And as usual, Time has snagged some celebrity writers, making for some great pairings, like JK Rowling on Gordon Brown, Ashton Kutcher on the Twitter guys, and Arnold Schwarzenegger on uncle-in-law Ted Kennedy. More»

More sophisticated hackers chip away at your online security

(NEWSER) - Hackers are getting smarter, more international, and increasingly well funded, a new report on Internet security reveals. One scam involves gangs acting as middlemen for other would-be criminals; some rip-off artists use social networking sites to research a mark, then send a personalized email to trick the target into giving up personal data, PC World reports. More»

FBI advises Windows users to visit security website

(NEWSER) - The FBI says it's time for Windows users to make sure their computers aren't infected by an unusual virus. As it stands, hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide are infected and will be unable to surf the Web after July 9, the AP reports. It all started when an Estonian hacker gang allegedly installed malicious software on more than 570,000 computers. Then, when those users surfed the Web, the gang rerouted them through rogue servers to other websites in order to rake in advertising dollars. More»

Hackers punish officials for Internet crackdowns

(NEWSER) - Anonymous hackers are boasting that they shut down Chinese government web sites. A number of government sites were still not working today, and marked with error messages as officials scramble to get sites back up, reports AP . A message from Anonymous on one of the hacked sites indicated the Chinese government was being attacked because of imposed Internet restrictions. Another possible target of Anonymous could soon be Pastebin , a favorite site, ironically, of hackers, who share information there. Pastebin's founder is looking for help removing sensitive information from the share site, and Anonymous has blasted the move as censorship, reports ZDNet . More»