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A newly-discovered botnet is 'practically indestructible', security researchers say.

TDL-4 is the rootkit component of the TDSS malware, which has been around since 2008. But in the three months since it hit the scene, it's sucked in more than four and a half million PCs around the world. About a third are based in the US.

And in this, its latest incarnation, it has the cheek to include its own version of an anti-virus capability, which scans slave machines for software that could enable it to be taken over by another botnet.

Skype allows customers to communicate over Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) platforms. And because it is encrypted, Skype, which was recently purchased by Microsoft for $8.5 Billion, is used by many businesses today for their international phone calls. What researchers have found, however, is a novel way to decrypt those conversations without ever knowing the encryption key.

For the U.S. government, the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan represents a unique opportunity to test advanced computer forensics techniques called "media exploitation" that it's developed over the last few years.

The military's acronym for the process is DOMEX, which one Army team in Iraq cheekily sums up with this motto: "You check their pulse, we'll check their pockets."

A group of researchers has developed a new application that can hide sensitive data on a hard drive without encrypting it or leaving any obvious signs that the data is present. The new steganography system relies on the old principle of hiding valuables in plain sight.