OT Computer Virus Risk

[Jac]

My husband sent this to me. It came from his office at the District Attorney's Office, so I think it is legit...and with the many problems people are having, I thought it was worth posting.

By SIOBHAN GORMAN
Hackers in Europe and China successfully broke into computers at nearly 2,500 companies and government agencies over the last 18 months in a coordinated global attack that exposed vast amounts of personal and corporate secrets to theft, according to a computer-security company that discovered the breach.

A global hacking offensive has broken into U.S. companies and government agencies. Cyber attacks could soon be seen as a national security threat, WSJ executive editor Jerry Seib tells the News Hub.

The damage from the latest cyberattack is still being assessed, and affected companies are still being notified. But data compiled by NetWitness, the closely held firm that discovered the breaches, showed that hackers gained access to a wide array of data at 2,411 companies, from credit-card transactions to intellectual property.

The hacking operation, the latest of several major hacks that have raised alarms for companies and government officials, is still running and it isn't clear to what extent it has been contained, NetWitness said. Also unclear is the full amount of data stolen and how it was used. Two companies that were infiltrated, pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. and Cardinal Health Inc., said they had isolated and contained the problem.

Starting in late 2008, hackers operating a command center in Germany got into corporate networks by enticing employees to click on contaminated Web sites, email attachments or ads purporting to clean up viruses, NetWitness found.
In more than 100 cases, the hackers gained access to corporate servers that store large quantities of business data, such as company files, databases and email.

[lindamarie]

GREAT!!!!!!!!!
Isn't it amazing!........All the different ways we can be under attack in these days! It's frightening to say the least.
We are talking BIG TIME hackers here, Jac. Then we have those who go for us personally. We have to be so careful nowadays.
So, now it's just not physically covering your back in say an empty parking structure at night.........but it's in your very own home in a little machine.
Maybe I trust too much. I pay all bills online etc. I am overly "exposed" and I wonder how good this really is!