Identity theft virus infects 10,000 computers
More than 10,000 Australian computers have been infected by a trojan virus - invisible to most anti-virus software - that is transmitting their owners' private details to identity thieves.
The Australian Tax Office confirmed yesterday that 178 taxpayers had unwittingly revealed their tax file numbers while lodging tax returns online.
These people had been notified and were being offered new tax file numbers, a spokesman said.
The Tax Office was warned of the infection by the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (Auscert), which has been issuing similar warnings to banks and other large organisations whose clients' details have been compromised.
