SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Savvy Internet users know that downloading unsolicited computer programs is one of the most dangerous things you can do online. It puts you at great risk for a virus or another time bomb from a hacker.

But even some sophisticated surfers could get snookered by a sneaky new attack in which criminals create fake YouTube pages dead-on replicas of the real site to push their malicious software and make it look like it's safe stuff coming from a trusted source.

A program circulating online helps hackers build those fake pages. Users who follow an e-mail pointing them to one of the pages would see an error message that claims the video they want won't play without installing new software first. That error message includes a link the hacker has provided to a malicious program, which delivers a virus.

Even worse: once the computer is infected, it's simple for the hacker to silently redirect the victims to a real YouTube page to see videos they were hoping to see _ and hide the crime.

Posted by Justin Payton in Adware, Spyware and Trojans at 17:56

Asustek Computer's Japanese arm has alerted owners of its new Eee Box low-cost desktop PC that the machine shipped with a virus.

The D drive of the Eee Box B202, which launched in Japan last week, contains a virus file named "recycled.exe," Asustek said in a statement. When the drive is opened, the virus begins copying itself to the main C drive on the machine and to any other removable drives or USB memory connected to the computer.

Despite repeated attempts to get more information from Asustek, the company has not confirmed that the problem is limited to only Japanese Eee Box PCs. The company also didn't explain how the virus got into the computers.

Posted by Justin Payton in Adware, Spyware and Trojans at 08:03