Hacker's Osama bin Laden Hoax Terrorizes Computers
A hacker apparently sprinkled thousands of newsgroups with rumors of bin Laden’s death, saying CNN reporters found the terrorist leader hanged, and included a link supposedly showing pictures of bin Laden’s body.
A word of advice about clicking on those alleged Osama bin Laden “suicide” pictures online: Don’t.
For one thing, the pictures are a hoax. And for another, they connect curious viewers to a damaging “Trojan horse” program. Word about the images spread fast late last week and through the weekend via “Usenet” postings, instead of the usual method of attaching them to e-mail.
The Usenet consists of messages on various subjects posted to servers over a broad network. Each collection of messages is called a newsgroup. A hacker apparently sprinkled thousands of newsgroups with rumors of bin Laden’s death, saying CNN reporters found the terrorist leader hanged, and included a link supposedly showing pictures of bin Laden’s body.