Viruses attack Instant Messangers

[kc0arf]

Akronix, a company that provides IM security and management tools, reports that Q3 2005 attacks on IM networks averaged more than one per day.

The report mentions that IM borne viruses were "often mutations of other varients, however in September, we had seven new viruses." The report did not mention which IM networks were under attack, such as AIM, Yahoo!, or MSN. The report suggests that organizations examine the use of IM on their networks, and prepare to defend their systems from attacks.

According to Akonix, August's Kelvir.hi worm was the first to ask the client software the local language settings, and sent a text message based on the language settings. Again, it was not reported on which clients were affected by this attack.

It is not known about how many of the millions of IM users are aware that most of their communications are not encrypted when using IM, and that sending of files through them, along with other automated features could introduce attacks onto a computer system.

[sixty_9cents]

I just yahoo messenger,,, and i downloaded the blue funbiddies,,and have had computer trouble ever since!! I suspected it was a virus that was associated with the download,, now i'm sure it was! I uninstalled all of my yahoo,,and now just use the mail,, but my computer still is acting up,,better,,but still acting up. Since i'm 'computer challenged',,i'm just going to have to deal with it.

[eltommyo]

i want to know where you can create a good simple free aimbot, or how do you download Net :: AIM? is that just aim or is it sumthing special? thanks!

[mmiikkee12]

This isn't the best place to ask questions like this, but:
sixty_9cents: Don't download anything like that, it's just asking for a virus.
eltommyo: Use IRC and PircBot. :)

On the original article, this is just stupid. If everyone would learn that there are better ways to transfer things besides messages than instant messengers, we wouldn't have problems like this. Why do we need a feature with a just-as-easy-but-more-secure alternative? When was the last time you sent someone a file through AIM instead of email? The same goes for all the Outlook security holes - just access your mail through the web like it should be accessed. Problem solved.