March 21, 2005 - (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – In internet security news, Symantec has published results of a study that show malicious attacks by worms and Trojans are up by as much as 30% in the first quarter of this year as compared with last year. Meanwhile, McAfee has been reported as having a buffer overflow vulnerability which allows attackers to execute viral code.
As reported by the Reuters news organization hackers attacked computer servers of a California university and may have gained access to the personal information of 59,000 people affiliated with the school, a university spokesman said on Monday.
California State University, Chico in northern California is alerting students, former students, prospective students and faculty that their personal information, including Social Security (news - web sites) numbers, may have been compromised in the attack three weeks ago, said spokesman Joe Wills.
"It looked like it was illegal access to do some, perhaps, some downloading of files," Wills said. "In investigating it we realized the hackers had some access to a great deal of personal information."
"We have no indication that the hackers used the information ... But we can't say for sure," Wills said. "My understanding is that to this point we haven't had any success in figuring out who did it."
The school will continue probing the attack on its servers, Wills said.
