This is an interesting article on eWeek penned by Gene Koprowski
adressing the virus portal known as Internet Message chat (AIM, MS
messenger, ICQ etc).
Wednesday reported the highest monthly total ever of new IM viruses…
some 25 viruses were reported on IM networks during September alone.”
Great point but the article speaks as if IM is some sort of NEW
target. IM is one of the biggest holes in home computer
systems. There are MANY hacker tools that exploit these swiss
cheese, foolishly trusting apps. Do a scan on your ISP's Network
and you will see scores of ports open on AIM and ICQ and others.
“We started doing this report about four months ago. What we're
seeing is that there could be a new phase of IM viruses emerging. In
the past, IM viruses were variants of e-mail-borne viruses. That's not
exclusively the case anymore.”
Jaros said that his company's research demonstrates that there
is an average of at least one IM virus attack being conducted every day
now.
One of the most popular techniques that truly dark hackers use is to
connect an “owned” box to an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) room from which
many unholy acts can be done.
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