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More than four million PCs have been enrolled in a botnet security experts say is almost “indestructible”.

The botnet, known as TDL, targets Windows PCs and is difficult to detect and shut down.

Code that hijacks a PC hides in places security software rarely looks and the botnet is controlled using custom-made encryption.

Security researchers said recent botnet shutdowns had made TDL’s controllers harden it against investigation.

The 4.5 million PCs have become victims over the last three months following the appearance of the fourth version of the TDL virus.

The changes introduced in TDL-4 made it the “most sophisticated threat today,” wrote Kaspersky Labs security researchers Sergey Golovanov and Igor Soumenkov in a detailed analysis of the virus.

“The owners of TDL are essentially trying to create an ‘indestructible’ botnet that is protected against attacks, competitors, and anti-virus companies,” wrote the researchers.

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Travelodge is investigating an apparent hacking attack on its customer database.

A spokesperson for the hotel chain said that a “third party” had managed to obtain names and e-mail addresses.

The company warned users of its online service to be on the lookout for spam e-mails.

The incident has been reported to the UK’s information commissioner who can fine businesses for poor data protection.

A letter to customers, signed by the Travelodge’s chief executive Guy Parsons, contained little information about the nature of the leak, although it stressed that the company had not sold users’ personal data to anyone else.

It also included details of a spam e-mail that some customers had received.

“Good day. Don’t miss exciting career opening. The company is seeking for self-motivated people in United Kingdom to help us spread out our activity in the UK area,” said the message.

A spokesperson for the information commissioner Christopher Graham, said that he was looking into the Travelodge reports.

“We will be making enquiries into the circumstances of the alleged breach of the Data Protection Act before deciding what action, if any, needs to be taken,” said the statement.

The ICO has the power to levy fines of up to £500,000 on companies or organisations which are shown to have failed to protect personal information entrusted to them.

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– That’s what I’d say if I was drawing a lot of heat.  – dennis

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A hacker group that has attacked several high-profile websites over the last two months has announced that it is disbanding.

Lulz Security made its announcement through its Twitter account, giving no reason for its decision.

A statement published on a file-sharing website said that its “planned 50-day cruise has expired”.

The group leapt to prominence by carrying out attacks on companies such as Sony and Nintendo.

Broadcasters Fox and PBS, the CIA, and the United States Senate have also been cyber-attacked by the group.

As a parting shot, the group released a selection of documents apparently including confidential material taken from the Arizona police department and US telecoms giant AT&T.

Correspondents say LulzSec’s announcement could be a sign that its members are nervous because of recent police investigations, including the arrest of a British man suspected of links to the group, and efforts by rival hackers to expose them.

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The Lulz Security hacking group that has claimed attacks on high-profile targets including the CIA and Sony in recent weeks has exclusively told the BBC’s Newsnight programme that it wants to target the “higher ups” who write the rules and “bring them down a few notches”.

Lulzsec has claimed a new scalp – releasing confidential material taken from the Arizona police department.

The anonymous hacking group says they’ve not been knocked off course, or successfully exposed, by rival hackers who claim to have named them online – apparently because they object to their agenda.

This agenda seems to have evolved. When they started out, two months ago, they said they were mainly hacking “for laughs”.

In an online Q&A, Whirlpool, the spokesman for Lulzsec, who describes himself as “captain of the Lulz Boat”, agreed that their goals now go beyond that: “Politically motivated ethical hacking is more fulfilling”.

We weren’t able to talk to Whirlpool in person, but met in cyberspace in a private online chat room. In those circumstances it’s almost impossible to verify with absolute certainty who you are speaking to, but Newsnight was able to verify that this person had access to the @Lulzsec Twitter feed.

Here are some other edited highlights from the online chat, which began with a question about the Antisec movement to which Lulzsec seem recently to have aligned themselves.

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The oft-repeated aphorism “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” could easily be applied to the world of computer hacking.

Just as spray-painted graffiti can represent either a mindless act or a political statement, the take-down of websites and theft of user information means different things to different people.

The subjective nature of what these shadowy troublemakers get up to is exemplified by the use of the term “hacktivist”.

Anonymous and Lulz Security – two of the highest profile groups at work today – sail under this flag.

“There has always been a streak within hackerdom of ideology mixed with technology,” says Peter Sommer, author of the seminal 1980s text The Hacker’s Handbook.

The hacker, explains Mr Sommer, is distinct from the cyber-criminal, whose motivations are generally larceny and whose relationship with technology is akin to the housebreaker’s relationship to the jemmy – it is a tool of the trade.

Hackers are interested in the mechanism of attack as much as they are in the target.

“One strong element in hacking is seeing how things work. Here is a technology, can I make it do something else?” says Mr Sommer.

That love of technological innovation, and the internet in particular, gives rise to a philosophy.

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