Malware

A trojan that uses a "magical" authentication code to communicate with its command-and-control server has compromised thousands of organizations around the globe. So far, however, it has remained largely silent.

As expected, the web's unscrupulous element is taking advantage of the attention surrounding the Boston Marathon bombings to spread malware and trick people into donating to fake causes.

Symantec's annual "Internet Security Threat Report 2013" concentrated on the success attackers are attaining by sabotaging legitimate websites.

German research institute AV-TEST conducted the study over a period of 18 months.

The "PlaneSploit" application was three years in the making, and is able to remotely attack flight management systems, though the program was built to only work on virtual aircraft.

Fortinet researchers have tracked 100,000 new ZeroAccess trojan infections per week, making the botnet very lucrative to its owners.

Ryan Ackroyd, 26; Jake Davis, 20; and Mustafa al-Bassam, 18, who was not named until now because of his age, all admitted their involvement in the hacktivist gang's attack spree.