Paul Roberts

Hackers have compromised databases belonging to LexisNexis and stolen information on at least 32,000 people, according to a statement Wednesday from LexisNexis' parent company, Reed Elsevier PLC. The hackers stole passwords, names, addresses, Social Security and drivers license numbers of legitimate customers of the company's Seisint division. Seisint collects data on individuals that is used by law enforcement and private companies for debt recovery, fraud detection and other services.

Mobile phones infected with the Cabir virus have turned up in Japan and France, according to antivirus software company F-Secure Corp. of Helsinki.

Microsoft Corp. security researchers are warning about a new generation of powerful system monitoring programs, or

Antivirus software companies are warning their customers about the appearance of at least one new version of the Bagle worm that doesn't try to spread, but installs malicious remote monitoring software on systems it infects. The new Bagle variant, Bagle.BB, is spreading in massive spam e-mail campaigns, but breaks with computer worm orthodoxy.

Leading IT companies including Cisco Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Symantec Corp. are promoting a rating system that will standardize the measurement of the severity of software vulnerabilities. A plan for the new system, called the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), was unveiled at the RSA Conference in San Francisco on Thursday.

Microsoft Corp. security researchers are warning about a new generation of powerful system monitoring programs, or "rootkits," that are almost impossible to detect using current security products and that could pose a serious risk to corporations and individuals. The researchers discussed the growing threat posed by kernel root kits at a session at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. The malicious snooping programs are becoming more common and could soon be used to create a new generation of mass-distributed spyware and worms.

Technology to fight spyware, remotely controlled bots and other threats will dominate news from the RSA Conference in San Francisco this week, as antivirus and e-mail security companies offer new products and features to protect companies and Internet users from sophisticated, malicious code.

On the same day it announced the purchase of antivirus software vendor Sybari Software Inc., Microsoft Corp. seeded the Internet with raw material for a possible future harvest of new worms and viruses. The Redmond, Washington, software company released 12 software patches Tuesday to fix 16 vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system and Office desktop software.