Hackers Attack Popular Websites, Spread Virus

Hackers co-opted several popular Web sites including comedycentral.com, using them to infect thousands of computers with a virus that can be used to steal passwords, bank accounts and other personal information. Displaying an increasingly sophisticated approach to online theft, the hackers gained control of a German online advertising services firm and served up thousands of Internet ads designed to send visitors to one of several Web sites where the hackers had installed the virus.