Exploring Back Doors and Cyber Exploits in Software Security

A "back door" is a secret method of gaining access to a computer by taking advantage of some undocumented feature or bug. When hackers discover flaws in closed-source software, they often exploit them to gain access to confidential information, or to . . . A "back door" is a secret method of gaining access to a computer by taking advantage of some undocumented feature or bug. When hackers discover flaws in closed-source software, they often exploit them to gain access to confidential information, or to damage systems outright.

One Dutch cracker, who goes by the pseudonym OnTheFly, recently gained notoriety as the creator of a Windows-exploiting script known widely as the Anna Kournikova e-mail worm. Anna, like the "Love Bug" before it, attacks vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Outlook e-mail software, mailing copies of itself to a user's entire address book. Typical of virus creators, OnTheFly blames Microsoft's failure to secure its software for the losses that result.

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