Soon after the Kinect's 2010 release, hardware hackers wrote code that let them control the device so they could use it for their own projects.

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Now using the open source code, enterprising hackers have jerry-rigged everything from virtual piano keyboards that let users play the piano anywhere, to an application for 3D drawings and digital puppeteering.

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But, warns MasterCard senior vice-president Robin Townend, hackers could crack the code within three years of its implementation.

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"It is a bit ironic, but the fact that Apple currently has such a small market share versus Microsoft 's Windows means that there are far fewer hackers writing virus code for the Macintosh operating system, " says Pile, who notes the premium IT managers place on system reliability.

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Last year Apple upped its game another notch, randomizing the location of code in memory so that hackers can't even locate commands to hijack them.

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There were also reports of skulls popping up on some computer screens, which could indicate that hackers had installed malicious code in the networks, the Korean Internet Security Agency said.

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Malicious hackers wanting to try to identify and exploit flaws in the code in order to blackmail the company are another possibility. (Some reports said the attack originated in St Petersburg, and suggested that the Russian mafia may have been involved.) And there is always the chance that some 15-year-old whizz-kid did it all for fun or to impress his friends.

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Adding code to the kit would hugely boost the numbers of malicious hackers trying to compromise computers running Java.

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Agitar stretches and pulls the code in all directions, mimicking inexperienced users making stupid requests and malicious hackers trying to break it.

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