TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS
<i> Times Staff and Wire Reports</i>
On-Line Service Alerts Members to Hackers: America Online Inc. began alerting its 3 million customers of a security problem stemming from hackers, who have created fake account numbers and used the leading on-line service without paying. With hacker-written programs written known as AOHell and AOL4Free, intruders have been able to break into the internal computer system of America Online, running up bills for service time that the company has written off as bad debt, analysts said. In a letter to members, AOL chairman Steve Case also told customers to be “good cybercitizens,” alert AOL officials to suspicious activity and change passwords frequently.
