Instant Messaging
Instant Messaging
Instant messaging requires the use of a client program that hooks up an instant messaging service and differs from e-mail in that conversations are then able to happen in realtime. Most services offer a presence information feature, indicating whether people on one's list of contacts are currently online and available to chat. This may be called a 'Buddy List'.
In early instant messaging programs, each letter appeared as it was typed, and when letters were deleted to correct typos this was also seen in real time. This made it more like a telephone conversation than exchanging letters. In modern instant messaging programs, the other party in the conversation generally only sees each line of text right after a new line is started. Most instant messaging applications also include the ability to set a status message, roughly analogous to the message on a telephone answering machine.
Popular instant messaging services on the public Internet include Qnext, MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, Google Talk, .NET Messenger Service, Jabber, QQ, iChat and ICQ. These services owe many ideas to an older (and still popular) online chat medium known as Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
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Instant Messaging Related Industry News
Global weapon to fight child net porn Police forces around the globe will soon be using software developed in Britain as part of the worldwide fight against child pornography.
It is part of an initiative from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to tackle pornography in Eastern Europe and South East Asia, where much of the indecent imagery of children comes from.
SurfControl, based in Cheshire, originally developed its filtering software to aid UK police in the investigation of online chi......
[more] EU anti-spam laws are OK It's just over a month since new anti-spam legislation was introduced into the UK with almost universal condemnation that the new laws would have a limited effect in the fight against junk email. The £5,000 fine for offenders has been branded by some experts as an "inadequate deterrent". And even those who've welcomed the new legislation - which is part of an EU-wide directive - doubt it will have any real impact on combating spam.
For although there is one EU anti-s......
[more] Adware ploy dupes IMers with bin Laden 'news' Beware of instant messages bearing news of Osama bin Laden's capture Several victims told CNET News.com on Wednesday that a new Trojan horse advertising program, called BuddyLinks, masquerades as a news Web site with a story on the al-Qaida leader's capture in an attempt to fool users of America Online's instant-messaging program into downloading software and receiving advertising.
Although the software has some of the properties of an Internet w......
[more] Will IM be the next security culprit? Might instant messaging become the next preferred propagation method for computer worms and viruses? It's not such a remote prospect. The past year has witnessed the rise of several high-impact worms and viruses that shared three common transmission media: e-mail, network scanning or file sharing. While good patch policies and strong security postures minimized massive infections, a few attacks invariably slipped through the cracks and caused network havoc.......
[more] AOL patches ICQ to block worm America Online Inc. (AOL) said Wednesday it has implemented a fix to prevent further distribution of a worm that began attacking ICQ instant message software users Tuesday. The block was implemented on ICQ's servers and does not require any action from ICQ users, according to an AOL spokeswoman.
Virus researchers first detected the worm Tuesday. Dubbed "Bizex," the program spreads through instant-messaging exchanges, a less common method for viruses than e-mail......
[more] Bizex worm attacks ICQ A new instant messaging worm dubbed "Bizex" is making the rounds, targeting ICQ users with invitations to visit a site that can install malicious code on the target computer. Russian anti-virus company Kaspersky Labs Ltd. issued a warning about the virus Thursday, terming it an "epidemic" and estimating that 50,000 PCs worldwide have been affected. But a Symantec Corp. security researcher said his company has seen only a handful of Bizex infections and ranks the virus's t......
[more] Top Three Security Problems Remain Despite Increased Spending Companies turn to managed Service providers for help; desktops dominate security budgets as patches average $234 per machine. Expect security spending to get a boost at many companies, says The Yankee Group after surveying surveyed 404 "decision makers" at medium-to-large companies.
Half of respondents see security budgets increasing over the next three years; only eight percent see it decreasing. Also, half of all respondents sh......
[more] Red alert over worst internet virus Computer users are facing the worst virus outbreak yet. Experts have warned that a stream of new bugs could bring the internet to a standstill within days.
Mailboxes across the country are already reaching bursting point, with some users receiving thousands of infected emails.
"It's going to be mad March and could get a lot worse," one expert warned.
Hundred of British businesses have already found their email servers clogged up.
In the last......
[more] Illegal file-sharing still 'widespread' on UK corporate networks UK firms are still allowing widespread illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing on their corporate networks despite the threat of legal action from record companies and the security risk it poses.
The findings are revealed in a survey of 500 UK IT managers and HR officers by web and email filtering software company SurfControl.
Two-thirds of those surveyed claim their organisation takes P2P file-sharing seriously. But when......
[more] SurfControl Helps Companies Strategically Manage Spam and E-Mail Threats Through New Online Tool ROI Calculator for Anti-Spam Tools Helps IT Managers Quantify and Communicate the Costs and Benefits of E-mail Filtering Solutions SurfControl, the world's number one Web and e-mail filtering company, today announced the availability of a free online resource to help corporate IT managers quantify the cost of spam and assess the business value of e-mail filtering solutions.
According to a recent stu......
[more] Spam being rapidly outpaced by 'spim' While the torrent of unsolicited spam emails continues to rise, it is being far outpaced by the surge in unwanted messages sent to the users of instant messaging programs, analysts have warned.
The volume of so-called "spim" is set triple in 2004, according to a new report from the Radicati Group, a technology market research firm in Palo Alto, California.
The company projects that 1.2 billion spims will be sent, 70 per cent of which are porn-related.......
[more] IM spam to triple in 2004 Spam sent via instant messaging (IM) is set to become a major nuisance in 2004, with the number of IM spam messages tripling from 400 million to 1.2 billion, according to research firm the Radicati Group.
The increase in IM spam, also referred to as "spim", will come about due to much greater use of IM among businesses and a rapid increase in published IM names in corporate and public directories, Radicati said in a report.
The overall business IM market will gro......
[more] Report Shows Spammers Do It For The Money Spammers' prime motivation for engaging in spam campaigns is financial, according to a report by Vircom, a Montreal-based email security provider. The report offers a portrait of a spammer who said he can earn anywhere from $1,200 to $6,500 for a week's worth of spamming.
The report, "Why Spammers Spam," offers the first comprehensive glimpse into the world of spamming, based on more than 40 hours of interviews with three U.S.-based spammers conduct......
[more] National Cyber Security Day is a well-kept secret U.S. residents adjusting to the daylight savings time change will have to be forgiven for sleeping through much of National Cyber Security Day on Sunday. The semi-annual event passed with nary a mention, even as antivirus software companies warned customers of yet another virulent e-mail worm.
A spokesman for the National Cyber Security Alliance, a government-industry group that sponsors the event said the group is doing a good job of commun......
[more] IM spam piling up, researchers say Spam sent via instant messaging is set to become a major nuisance this year, with the number of such messages tripling from 400 million to 1.2 billion, according to research firm The Radicati Group.
The increase in IM spam, also called spim, will come about because of greater use of IM among businesses and a rapid increase in published IM names in corporate and public directories, a Radicati report says.
The number of business IM users more than double......
[more] UK firms must monitor staff IMs UK firms could be falling foul of corporate accountability regulations by failing to track and archive instant messaging (IM) conversations among workers.
Only 22 per cent of medium-to-large UK organisations monitor IM and just nine per cent say they archive IM data, according to a survey of European IT directors commissioned by storage vendor Hitachi Data Systems.
IM was originally intended as a consumer tool but it has also caught on big time in the workp......
[more] Spam Gets Dangerous What isn't getting blocked is turning vicious, warn security experts at e-mail conference. ISPs and spam filters are blocking record amounts of unsolicited messages, but this electronic nuisance is hardly on the decline--and it's getting nastier. Security experts report a growing link between spam and viruses, according to e-mail vendors and analysts at the inaugural INBOX: The Email Event conference here this week.
"You can't separate spam and viruses anymore," said Mark......
[more] ITU to hold spam summit Telcos and ISPs invited to tackle growing menace of junk email The world's leading telcos and internet service providers will gather in Geneva next month to discuss the development of an anti-spam framework.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will serve as a forum for governments, regulators and consumer groups.
Because spam is a potential threat to digital services and a "significant and growing problem for users, networks and the internet as a whole......
[more] Aladdin enhances anti-spyware, identity protection features of security utility. Aladdin Systems is updating its Internet Cleanup for Windows, enhancing its security features to fight pop-ups, spyware, and identity theft.
Internet Cleanup 4.0 is priced at $29.99 and is available immediately from Aladdin Systems. For a limited time, current users of Internet Cleanup 3.0 will be able to upgrade for $19.99. The upgrade and full version both include a one-year subscription to data updates for t......
[more] IM Worms Could Spread In Seconds Enterprises whose workers use one of the free public instant messaging networks -- the likes of America Online's, Yahoo's, or Microsoft's -- risk malicious attacks that could make the quick-spreading Sasser worm look like a worn-out snail, said a security analyst Friday. "In instant messaging, we have a lot of the same security issues as in e-mail and networks," said Eric Chien, a senior researcher with Symantec's security response team. "Attacks can come in as......
[more] Instant-messaging virus costs a man his job A virus can transmit previous IM conversations to a user's buddy list without his or her consent - and with disastrous consequences Virus attacks are not yet frequent on instant-messaging applications, but the latest threat is likely to send a shiver down the spine of all IM users. A businessman whose computer had been infected by a virus found that his entire buddy list had been sent a record of all his IM conversations, said Derek O'Carroll, managing......
[more] Messaging pact to can the spam Spam free instant messaging for business is a step closer after Microsoft, America Online and Yahoo agreed to make their systems compatible. 'In much the same way that email significantly changed today's business landscape, instant messaging is becoming just as ubiquitous in organisations,' said Anoop Gupta, a Microsoft vice president.
Instant messaging across the different platforms will become available using Microsoft's Live Communications Server 2005, whi......
[more] Worried firms consider email boycott Security concerns threaten future of 'everyone's favourite killer app' Six out of 10 companies claim they will give up email if the threat posed by viruses, spam and other unwanted content is not contained and a viable alternative emerges.
Responding to an email security survey carried out by MessageLabs a further 40 per cent said they feel 'worried' by the current email security threat to their business, with only 29 per cent feeling 'optimistic'.
The surv......
[more] SurfControl, 'No room for friendly spam' If you thought the spam blocker was enough to shield your organisation against all sorts of harmful content, think again.
According to UK-based Web and e-mail content filtering software vendor SurfControl, your organisation could be exposed to all types of undesirable content that go beyond spam, and the penalties could be severe if these are not properly managed.
The company has a range of rich content filtering software that manages informatio......
[more] Hunt for XP SP2 flaws in full swing While users are testing Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows XP to prevent compatibility problems, hackers are picking apart the security-focused software update looking for vulnerabilities, security experts said.
"We will see new vulnerabilities discovered in SP2 over the next few weeks. Give it a month or two and we will also see worms that affect SP2," said Thor Larholm, senior security researcher at PivX Solutions, a security services company.
Service Pac......
[more] Yahoo Plugs PNG Security Hole Yahoo Inc. has issued a security update to its popular instant messaging service to fix broader vulnerabilities in an advanced graphics format.
Late on Tuesday, Yahoo posted a security update for its Windows version of Yahoo Messenger to fix a series of vulnerabilities in the PNG (portable network graphics) library, or libpng. The library provides a set of graphics routines for PNG files; PNG is an alternative graphics format to GIF.
The PNG library holes, as pre......
[more] New Download.Ject Attack Hits IM Networks The Download.Ject malware attack has resurfaced, using the popular AIM and ICQ instant messaging networks to spread itself.
According to an alert from PivX Labs, the worm targets several known flaws in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser to redirect compromised machines to Web sites displaying adult advertisement and referral links.
PivX Labs described the latest attack as a variant of the Download.Ject attack, which hijacked a large number of......
[more] Instant messaging cements popularity IM use has spread strongly into the workplace, according to statistics from America Online The use of instant messaging in the workplace and from mobile devices continues to grow, according to an America Online survey released on Tuesday. Nearly 27 percent of all IM users surveyed said they use instant messaging at work. This represents an increase of 71 percent over last year, AOL said.Seventy percent of those who use IM at work do so to communicate with col......
[more] Security concerns put MSN Messenger beta on hold Microsoft has suspended the beta testing of the next version of its MSN Messenger client because of a potential security problem, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday. Testers discovered a potential security issue in the early version of MSN Messenger 7 shortly after Microsoft made the instant messaging client available to a select group of testers over the weekend, according to postings on MSN Messenger enthusiast Web site Mess.be.
The problem l......
[more] Find the Web's Worst Security Flaws The SANS Institute identifies the top 20 Internet vulnerabilities of the year. IT security and research organization The SANS Institute is releasing its annual Top 20 list of Internet security vulnerabilities this week, with the intention of offering organizations at least a starting point for addressing critical issues.
"When you tell your systems people to test for thousands of vulnerabilities, your enterprise comes to a stop. What the Top 20 does is give y......
[more] Hackers can launch attacks over IM Hackers have created a 'proof-of-concept' instant messaging tool that can scan and disable networks Security experts have discovered an instant messaging tool that could change the way denial-of-service (DoS) attacks are performed.
Combining the open-source tool nmap -- a program that discovers devices on a network -- with an IM bot, hackers can infiltrate, steal information and carry out denial-of-service attacks on networks, says the director of security for......
[more] 1st lawsuit filed against instant-message spam The first known lawsuit against instant-message spam, sometimes called “spim,” was announced by America Online as part of a campaign to stem unwanted computer messages.
AOL, a unit of Time Warner and a major provider of real-time instant-messaging, said it targeted 20 “John Doe” defendants in the first lawsuits against instant-message spam. The announcement came as part of a series of lawsuits against unwanted e-mail messages, or spam, by AOL and......
[more] IM virus hoax threatens bandwidth drain Remember those 'end of the world virus' hoaxes? Well guess what's found its way to IM... Instant messaging users are being blighted with an increasing number of threats of terrible viruses which are spreading via the popular peer-to-peer application. But just as email users were regular victims of hoaxes several years ago, so this latest scare is similarly fictitious.
One such hoax, propagated by well-meaning recipients who are urged to share the informat......
[more] IM use 'should be monitored' Employees using it to gossip rather than work, apparently... Instant messaging is still used more often for personal reasons in the workplace than for business purposes, a new survey shows.
A report issued on Thursday by Meta Group found that 57 per cent of the people surveyed at 300 companies worldwide use IM at work for personal chitchat more often than for job-related communications.
However, many companies have also adopted a more stringent attitude toward mana......
[more] Why messaging needs controls Only the most ostrich-like businesses can continue to ignore instant messaging According to analyst firm Meta Group, more than half of people who use instant messaging (IM) tools at work use them for non-work reasons. Yup, Meta found that 57 percent of respondents used IM at work for social reasons, while 56 percent use it at home for business reasons.
Straightaway, I interrupted the conversation with my friends over IM to see whether they agreed. After much debate......
[more] Websense Enterprise Version 5.5 gains key safeguards In Websense Inc.'s Websense Enterprise Version 5.5, the Internet access control vendor has effectively added real-time Internet attack protection to its list of dos and don'ts.
Websense Enterprise 5.5 was released last month. Although the real-time database updates, along with a mobile client for laptops, are new, the foundation of Websense Enterprise 5.5 has been around for some time.
Websense Enterprise 5.5 is priced starting at $15 per y......
[more] Google Stumbles With New Desktop Tool Google wants to help you effectively access the piles of information you store in the documents, e-mail messages, Web pages, and contact lists stuffed on your PC. And who better to help you than the most popular search engine on the Net, right? Not so fast.
Though it lacks a few features, the beta version of Google Desktop Search does give the same satisfying results for your PC that Google.com provides for the Web. But as it's designed now, GDS also deliv......
[more] A guide to proactive network security Behind our daily barrage of hacker attacks, announcements of new viruses and worms, and frequent risk of downtime is an opportunity. This is your opportunity to step away from the noise, for a moment, and take steps to build a more proactive network security model for your organization.
Countermeasures like firewalls or anti-anything (antivirus, anti-spam, anti-spyware, etc.) are all reactive security tools. They are necessary countermeasures and a part of......
[more] Websense Announces Support for Microsoft Network Access Protection Technology Websense, the world’s leading provider of employee internet management solutions, today announced support for Microsoft’s new Network Access Protection (NAP) technology, a comprehensive architecture that provides IT administrators with secure management of client access to the network. Network Access Protection’s open architecture enables security technology vendors to deliver simple, comprehensive and secure manageme......
[more] Companies at risk from instant messaging abuse Two-thirds of organisations have no IM policies in place The majority of global businesses have still not implemented management systems to protect against the potentially serious legal, security and compliance risks associated with employee use of instant messaging (IM).
According to a newly published poll of nearly 300 companies, 60 per cent of respondents stated that they do not have any measures in place to manage employee IM use.
In addition,......
[more] MS mulls charging for anti-spyware app Microsoft is leaving its options open on charging for full versions of anti-spyware and virus disinfection tools. Speaking in London yesterday, Detlef Eckert, chief security adviser for Microsoft EMEA, revealed there will be a second beta of Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware application. However, the company remains unsure how the product will evolve from then on. "It could evolve into a consumer or enterprise product. There could be a basic and plus version,"......
[more] IM still a security weak spot, analysts warn The recent flaw plugged by Microsoft in its MSN Messenger software highlights a serious security threat to enterprise security, analysts said. Last Friday, Microsoft forced its millions of MSN Messenger users to download a new version of the software to plug a security vulnerability.
The software giant put the mandatory upgrade in place after a security company posted information that might help a would-be attacker exploit the vulnerability. Users o......
[more] Industry unites against IM spam Days after the first arrest for instant-messaging spam, an innovative software product has been launched to help counter the menace of 'spim' Back in December, instant-messaging (IM) management company IMLogic partnered with security companies McAfee and Sybari (recently acquired by Microsoft) to build IMLogic's Threat Center, which aims to protect users from peer-to-peer and IM threats, such as viruses, worms, spim and malicious code. The centre monitors honeypot......
[more] Worm Chatter Escalates on MSN Messenger Anti-virus vendors report an increased chatter of virus activity on Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Network messenger Sunday night through Monday. In what appears to be a concentrated attack on users of the MSN instant messaging client, security experts warn that several new worms with unique replication techniques have been launched alongside mutants of the known Bropia virus family.
"We are regularly adding detection for new Bropia worm variants," F-Secure......
[more] Possible Domain Poisoning Underway Security experts late Friday warned that a DNS cache poisoning attack may be underway and redirecting users from some of the most popular Web sites to a malicious URL where spyware and adware is invisibly installed onto their computers. According to the Internet Storm Center, which posted an alert on its Web site, it had received reports that the attack was redirecting traffic from popular domains such as google.com, ebay.com, and weather.com.
DNS cache pois......
[more] Politicans form transatlantic spam alliance Derek Wyatt's All Party Parliamentary Internet Group is teaming up with members of the US Congress in its fight against spam The All Party Parliamentary Internet Group (APIG) has partnered with the Internet Caucus, its counterpart at the US Congress, in a bid to tackle spammers.
Speaking to ZDNet UK on Wednesday, APIG chairman Derek Wyatt MP said the move would improve communication on e-commerce between the two countries and would help tighten laws o......
[more] Email worm graduates to IM The Chod.B worm is now spreading over Microsoft's instant-messaging service, after first being observed spreading over email systems last week A worm that first disguised itself as an email from computer vendors now attempts to trick MSN Messenger users into executing malicious files.The Chod.B worm, which was first discovered on April Fool's day, spreads via email purportedly from Microsoft, or security vendors Symantec and Trend Micro.When using MSN Messenger as its......
[more] Worm attack forces Reuters IM offline Reuters has shut down its instant messaging system after suffering an onslaught from a new Kelvir worm, the company confirmed Thursday. The London-based international media company decided to take its Reuters Messaging system completely offline after noticing the attack on its network earlier on Thursday, a Reuters representative said.
The new variant attempted to spread by sending fake instant messages to people in contact lists on infected systems, a te......
[more] Blog at your own risk Blogs are getting popular with hackers too, so be careful whose blog you wander into Blog authors open up their lives to you on their web logs. But surf to the wrong blog, and you could be opening up your computer to a hacker.
A recent report by web security firm Websense warned that hackers are now using blog sites as gateways into computers of surfers who are tricked into clicking on a link to them.
These hacker-maintained websites contain malicious codes, such as Troja......
[more] Phishers spawn more keylogger attacks Surge in variants and sham sites... Phishers are increasingly using new methods to nab sensitive information from internet users, according to data from Websense Security Labs.
In recent months, the researchers at security software company Websense have detected a rise in schemes involving malicious programs known as keyloggers, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group's March phishing trends report.
The technology, which records the keystrokes of pe......
[more] Websense: Surfing the Web at Work May Be as Addictive as Cup of Coffee Websense, the world’s leading provider of employee internet management solutions, today announced the results of its sixth annual Web@Work study, the company’s annual survey conducted by Harris Interactive. From February 21 to February 28, 2005, 354 U.S. IT decision-makers who work for organizations with at least 100 employees were interviewed online, and from February 28 to March 21, 2005, 500 U.S. employees who have intern......
[more] UK workers in IM flirt, gossip, bitchfest The increasing use of Instant Messaging (IM) in the workplace is exposing UK companies to fresh security and legal threats, a study out Monday claims. One in six (16 per cent) of 2,000 UK consumers quizzed in a YouGov survey admitted using IM at work to send or receive sensitive company information or documents. A quarter of respondents (25 per cent) used IM to gossip about work colleagues - twice as many men than women use IM for this purpose. Four in......
[more] Nearly half of IT decision makers say employees have 'fallen for the phish' Websense maker of employee Internet management solutions, has announced the results of its Phishing Trends study, which is part of the company's annual Web@Work survey conducted by Harris Interactive. And the survey suggests phishing Web sites remain difficult to identify and many companies are not well protected against phishing attacks.
According to Websense's 2005 Phishing Trends Survey, only one-third (33 per cent)......
[more] Hack attack danger soars in 2005 Security experts have warned of a substantial rise in the number and complexity of hacking attacks during the first half of 2005.
According to research commissioned by carrier AT&T, the volume of traditional email attachment viruses has fallen, but the speed at which new variants are appearing is increasing.
Other threats like phishing and spyware are also on the increase, the study warned.
"We have seen more attacks in the past six months than we have in......
[more] Hotmail threatened by MSN flaw A cross-scripting security hole allowed malicious hackers to steal cookies from Hotmail users and get access to their accounts Microsoft took part of its MSN Web site offline over the weekend, after it learned of a flaw that could let an attacker gain access to Hotmail accounts, the company said.
The MSN Web site, http://ilovemessenger.msn.com/, contained a so-called cross-site scripting flaw, a Microsoft representative said on Monday. In its initial review of th......
[more] Yahoo rings up VoIP purchase Yahoo has acquired DialPad Communications, a six-year-old startup whose software sets up calls over the Internet for a fraction of the price of regular telephone service.
No financial terms of the deal were announced.
Yahoo said it will use DialPad to expand its product offerings in the fast-growing area of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
DialPad has 40 employees and competes with several other startups that route calls from computers into the phone system......
[more] It is the employer not the employee who is the weakest link in a company's IT security SurfControl has today announced the results of a new UK survey that uncovers an alarming level of complacency by employers when it comes to combating spyware in the workplace. The poll found that 21.3 percent of all respondents' employers did not prohibit the use of Instant Messaging to contact friends, Web-based email, recreational surfing, downloading free software, personal online banking, storing personal......
[more] Male Workers Responsible for Spyware Surge Men at work are more likely to use their PCs to introduce spyware and other threats on to their company networks than female employees, according to SurfControl. A SurfControl survey of 300 men and women showed that male workers consistently made more regular use of the online facilities and PC technologies that often act as the source of malicious threats.
Office workers were asked how frequently they made use of personal Instant Messaging and Web-ba......
[more] PCs Have 50-50 Shot At Infection In Just 12 Minutes The number of new viruses, worms, and Trojans are up nearly 60 percent in the first half of 2005, a security researcher says. The number of new viruses, worms, and Trojans are up nearly 60 percent in the first half of 2005, a U.K.-based security company said Wednesday, while the length of time an unprotected PC survives on the Internet has shrunk to a measly dozen minutes.
Sophos reported that it had pinpointed 7,944 new pieces of malicious so......
[more] Security Firm Warns of IM Worm Less than a week after sounding the warning bell regarding a barrage of threats coming through public Instant Messaging (IM) clients, Akonix Security Center said it has discovered another bug.
The latest IM spyware worm, is named Chode-D, is moving rapidly over leading public IM networks, the security center said. The worm has been classified as a "medium risk."
The firm said it is using its IM malware, SPIM and protocol update system, which automatically push......
[more] Aladdin: 15 percent of spyware used to commit computer crimes Aladdin Knowledge Systems, which specializes in information security solutions, published worrying results yesterday on spyware research it had conducted indicating a high level of serious computer crimes, spying and information theft.
The spyware phenomenon grabbed numerous headlines in June after reports that many companies, including several high-profile ones, were suspected of spying on competitors. Suspected companies included......
[more] SurfControl's Internet Threat Database Exceeds 12 Million URLs SurfControl Adds One Million New Websites in the Past 30 Days, Driven by the Ongoing Explosion in Blended Internet Attacks SurfControl, a world leader in enterprise threat protection, today announced the Company's Internet Threat Database -- a core component of SurfControl's Adaptive Threat Intelligence(TM) Service -- has grown to more than 12 million URLs. SurfControl has added more than one million new URLs over the past 30 days.......
[more] Aladdin Study Uncovers Increase In Crime-Related Spyware Aladdin Knowledge Systems, the worldwide leader in Software Digital Rights Management (DRM) and USB-based authentication solutions, and a leading innovator in enterprise secure content management, today announced that the Aladdin eSafe Content Security Response Team (CSRT) conducted a two-month analysis of the top 2,000 known spyware threats.
The Aladdin eSafe CSRT study found that a staggering 15 percent of spyware threats actually ste......
[more] Firefox advocacy site hacked again Attackers sought to exploit a bug in the TWiki collaboration software For the second time in three months, a security breach has shut down the marketing Web site used to promote the Firefox browser. Late Monday, members of the Spread Firefox community were notified that their Spreadfirefox.com site had been hit by attackers looking to exploit a bug in the TWiki collaboration software, which had been running on the server.
The Mozilla Foundation does not belie......
[more] Businesses sending one billion IMs per day And that's just the ones your boss knows about Instant messaging is the new email for the world's businesses - it's official.
According to a new report from analyst house IDC, IM is now a standard piece of the corporate communication toolkit, with around one billion IMs sent every day between 28 million enterprise users.
Consequently, the analysts are predicting that the value of the enterprise IM market will continue to increase for at least the next......
[more] Hackers to attack VoIP in two years Hackers will attack voice over IP (VoIP) telephone conversations with spam and malicious code within two years, equipment manufacturer Nortel has claimed.
Companies using VoIP and other multimedia services, such as videoconferencing, should plan to defend against unsolicited adverts appearing mid-conversation, the company said.
Atul Bhatnager, VP of enterprise networks, said: "VoIP attacks are still at an early stage but as hackers become more savvy you'll......
[more] From Hacker to Protector Now just 25, Ejovi Nuwere has already had plenty of experience in computer security. His new company aims to make Net calling safer. For many technically talented teens, computer hacking brings about a first brush with law enforcement. For Ejovi Nuwere, it was a ticket out of the poverty-ridden, sometimes violent streets of New York's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.
What started as a hobby at the age of 15 led in time to a computer security job with Lehman Brothers, a......
[more] Skype could pose security problems for companies, analysts say The growing popularity of Skype Technologies SA's free Internet telephony software could soon pose the same kind of security challenges for companies that other peer-to-peer (P2P) software technologies have created in recent years, according to security experts.
The warning comes after the disclosure this week of two critical flaws in Skype's software, one of which could allow malicious hackers to take complete control of compromi......
[more] P2P Attacks Up; IM Hits Down IM security solutions provider Akonix Systems said its research team tracked 22 new attacks on Peer-to-Peer networks in October, a 19 percent increase over September.
The attacks on networks such as eDonkey and Kazaa came at the same time the Akonix Security Center tracked a decrease in attacks on Instant Messaging networks during the same time frame.
Don Montgomery, vice president of marketing at Akonix Systems, said October marked the first month that P2P attac......
[more] IM attacks rocket 1,500 percent The volume of security threats targeting instant messaging (IM) systems rocketed in October 2005 by more than 1,500 percent versus October 2004. The month's threat volume was also 30 percent higher than the previous month, new research has warned. According to the report from IMlogic Threat Center, as the number of threats grew, the payload carried by IM worms evolved to become more malicious. More than 60 percent of the worms identified in October delivered malw......
[more] Hackers Change Course According to the SANS 2005 Top 20 list of the most critical Internet security vulnerabilities, application programs are the thing of hackers' dreams.
In particular, the SANS report noted that backup applications are being increasingly targeted and now hold the No. 1 spot on the "Vulnerabilities in Cross-Platform Applications" listing.
Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute, said that the vulnerabilities mentioned in the top 20 report are widespread an......
[more] AppGate Network Security Launches version 7.1 of the AppGate Security Server This latest version of the AppGate server provides new and improved features to support wireless and mobile working.
The ability to synchronize calendar and contacts on mobile devices with MS Exchange over the AppGate secure tunnel has been added. The Exchange synchronization has been tested on the Nokia 9300/9500 and Sony Ericsson P800/P900/P910.
Many companies use VLAN tagging on their networks to segment off wire......
[more] 2006: Year of the Hacker? "I've worked with viruses for 15 years and things have been getting progressively worse," said Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer at computer security firm F-Secure. "This year is going to be bad." Computer hackers sought to create havoc on the Web last week by launching two attacks targeting Microsoft Windows users -- one circulating a virus disguised as the company's instant messenger client, the other exploiting a previously unknown flaw in its operating system.......
[more] Instant messaging attacks rise in 2005 MSN and AOL's IM networks experienced a sharp increase in security incidents in 2005 Security attacks over instant-messaging (IM) networks became more prevalent in 2005, according to a study published on Monday.
The MSN network experienced the largest number of IM security incidents in both 2004 and 2005, while year-on-year incident growth rates were largest on AOL's AIM network, according to the report, from IM security vendor FaceTime Communications.
In......
[more] Microsoft Readies Two-Way Firewall for Vista Administrator-run firewall expected to be 'highly configurable.' For its upcoming Windows Vista operating system, Microsoft is readying a new, highly configurable firewall designed to give administrators much greater control over which applications can run on the systems they manage.
After just over a month of testing by users of Microsoft's Community Technology Preview (CTP), the firewall is "very much on track" to be in the final Vista release sche......
[more] Email explosion fuels archiving demand IDC forecasts double digit growth for archiving applications Dramatic expansion in email and email attachments, combined with increased attention to regulatory compliance and corporate governance, will continue to drive "robust revenue" growth in the worldwide email archiving application market, analysts predicted today.
IDC estimated that 2005 revenues will top $310m worldwide, and grow at a compound annual growth rate of 34.5 per cent through to 2009.
"......
[more] New year brings fresh security fears Everybody knows that the pace of change in the technology world is relentless and that today's hi-tech hotshot can be tomorrow's also ran. Change also happens quickly in hi-tech crime circles. What was a popular technique or target one month may fall out of favour quickly.
In 2005 the increasing speed with which computer security firms react to new strains of viruses, spyware and other malicious programs was motivating tech-savvy criminals to find fresh wa......
[more] Akonix Named 2006 'Hot Company' by Info Security Products Guide Akonix Systems, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise-class solutions for ensuring security and compliance for employee use of instant messaging (IM), today announced it was the winner of 'Hot Companies 2006' award from Info Security Products Guide, the world's leading publication on security-related products and technologies published from Silicon Valley, USA. After evaluating more than 600 global security organizations, a team......
[more] Akonix Security Center Tracks 18 IM Network Attacks in January 2006 Akonix Systems, a provider of instant messaging (IM) security solutions, announced that its Security Center team tracked 18 attacks against IM networks in January. The company said that while this figure is a 500% increase from last January's assessment, it is however, a decrease of 45% from December 2005.
The Akonix Security Center also found 22 new threats on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks in January.
Akonix said that January......
[more] Manage & Secure Instant Messaging Akonix L7 Enterprise 4.3 Helps Companies With IM Compliance, Access Instant messaging has taken off as a popular method for people to use to “talk” in real time via the computer. From its origins as Internet Relay Chat and then the advent of ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger, instant messaging, or IM, has taken the world by storm.
It didn’t take long for users to bring their new communications tool into the workplace. Initially, it was purely for nonproductive pu......
[more] Sophos Makes First Foray into Email Appliances Anti-virus software vendor Sophos Plc is to take a first step into the appliance market with an email security device that guards against virus, spam and policy abuse. The new general-purpose ES4000 unit is said to be the first in a planned series of appliance launches, with separate versions targeted at the needs of small businesses and big business slated to follow. A combined web security and instant messaging appliance is also on the cards.
"Th......
[more] Virus attacking Apple Macintosh PCs found-experts A malicious computer worm has been found that targets Apple Computer Inc.'s Mac OS X operating system, believed to be the first such virus aimed specifically at the Mac platform.
The worm is called OSX/Leap-A, according to a posting on the Web site of antivirus software company Sophos, which said the worm is spread via instant messaging programs.
The worm attempts to spread via Apple's iChat instant messaging program, which is compatible with......
[more] AOL developing workplace version of AIM America Online is developing a version of its instant messaging (IM) service for workplace use, an attempt to give the consumer-oriented AIM the security, collaboration and IT management features businesses require, company plans to announce this week. Developed with online meeting specialist WebEx Communications, the new AIM Pro will become available in this year's second quarter. Pricing details haven't been finalized, but it will probably be offered on......
[more] Five Differences Your Company Can’t Afford to Ignore Akonix Systems announced that its Security Center team tracked 12 attacks against IM networks in the month of February, which saw the first ever IM worm spread via instant messaging on the Apple OS X platform.Akonix said attacks during February seemed to go into hibernation while researchers announced that the recent WMF exploit had been sold underground before security experts could patch the OS.Although the threats to IM networks decreased......
[more] Viruses cause most security breaches The DTI has warned businesses that viruses and spyware are an increasing threat, and recommends they deploy multi-level protection Viruses remain the biggest cyberthreat to businesses, according to a government report to be released soon which will also warn that the threat of spyware is growing, . The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) report into information security breaches found that approximately half of businesses said their worst security incident......
[more] Blue Coat enables organisations to control Skype BlueCoat ProxySG Appliances Protects Skype Users Against Information Leakage, Malware and Unauthorised Bandwidth UseCoat® Systems has announced that its ProxySGTM appliances have the ability to control Skype to protect against information leakage and unauthorised ‘back channel' communications as well as potential future malware. Using ProxySG appliances, organisations can allow or deny access to Skype in total or based on network user n......
[more] U.K. firms under fire for ignoring policy Widespread failure to implement or enforce internet acceptable usage policies (AUPs) is leaving many U.K. companies open to potentially serious IT security breaches, newly published research has claimed. The survey, conducted for network security provider SmoothWall, revealed that seven out of ten companies acknowledged that an AUP is crucial to the security of IT systems, but 38 percent went on to admit that their employees, who should be governed by su......
[more] Websense and Crossbeam Systems Combine Web Security and Unified Threat Management Websense, Inc., a global leader in web security and web filtering productivity software, today announced that they have teamed up with Crossbeam Systems®, Inc., a leader in unified threat management (UTM), to offer customers powerful web security capabilities to mitigate today's web-based threats. Websense® Web Security SuiteTM integrated with Crossbeam appliances offer organisations a comprehensive securi......
[more] Akonix Announces A-Series Instant Messaging Security Products Akonix Systems Inc. has launched its A-Series IM security appliances for enterprise and small- to medium-sized businesses. The new appliances are powered by AkOS, a hardened operating system developed by Akonix for real-time messaging environments.The company has also released version 5.1 of its Akonix L7 Enterprise IM management gateway and Akonix L7 Enforcer, a perimeter security solution that detects and blocks the unauthorized us......
[more] Survey finds that U.K. enterprises suffer costly breaches While the number of breaches has dropped, the costliness has increased The number of security breaches at large U.K. companies dropped by half over the last two years as larger budgets have been allocated to that area, according to a government-commissioned study released Tuesday. However, the incidents that do occur are taking a heavier financial toll. The survey estimated that the cost of security incidents to U.K. businesses is 50 perc......
[more] Akonix updates its instant messaging security tools New appliances from instant messaging security specialist Akonix offer improved monitoring and reporting Instant messaging (IM) security specialist Akonix has launched a major new range of hardware and software, plus a new appliance operating system designed to offer greater protection against IM-based threats and increased manageability for IT administrators.Akonix's A6000 appliance offers enterprises protection from viruses and other IM threa......
[more] IT security more imporant to most U.K. businesses Three-quarters of U.K. businesses rate security as a high or very high priority for their senior management or board of directors, according to the latest government-sponsored survey of breaches in the U.K. released at Infosec London. The study, conducted by a consortium led by PricewaterhouseCoopers, found that British companies are spending more on information security controls than ever: on average four to five percent of their IT bu......
[more] Viruses no longer top security threat Trojans and spyware taking over Early reports of malware distribution in April show that viruses are swiftly declining as a threat in comparison with other malicious software.Separate research from Fortinet and Sophos shows that the top viruses were mainly old timers, and that Trojans and spyware are coming to the fore in their place.Fortinet in particular reported that Adware/BetterInternet was its top threat last month, accounting for nearly one in eight a......
[more] VoIP may be next for archiving regulations IT chiefs were have been warned to prepare for the possibility of new corporate governance rules that would require them to keep records of voice-over-IP (VoIP) conversations alongside email, instant messaging and other forms of communication.Speaking at the Symantec user event in San Francisco last week, Jeremy Burton, a senior vice-president at the security specialist, said, "Financial institutions in the US already need to keep v......
[more] Akonix: Highest Number of Spim and Malware Filter Updates Issued This Year Akonix Systems, the provider of the most deployed instant messaging (IM) security and compliance products in the world, today announced its Security Center team tracked 31 attacks against IM networks in May, the largest number of threats this year. New worms identified in May include Browaf, Kassbot, Nugache and Propmsn. The most common attack was Tilebot, which had five variants of the original virus. Overall, Akonix se......
[more] Phishing scam aimed at MySpace.com A 'phishing' site that harvested the login and credentials of MySpace.com users was removed today from a California server, a security vendor has reported. A phishing attack involves tricking users into visiting a lookalike web page that asks for personal information, which is then sent to a hacker. The rich trove of personal information stored on MySpace user pages is making the social networking site an increasingly attractive target for identity theft, said......
[more] IM attacks on the rise in May The number of Instant Messaging (IM) attacks increased by 500 percent in May, Postini reported this week. The integrated message management firm also stated that it registered a 138 percent increase in corporate IM traffic, a statistic that testifies to the growing use of IM in the business world. "The fact that IM messages more than doubled in just one month shows the rate companies are adopting IM as a mainstream business communications tool," said Andre......
[more] Akonix Attains Gold Certified Partner Status In Microsoft Partner Program Akonix Systems, Inc., the premier provider of instant messaging (IM) management, development and security products, today announced it has attained Gold Certified status in the Microsoft Partner Program with a competency in both Networking Infrastructure Solutions and Security Solutions, recognizing Akonix's expertise and total impact in the technology marketplace. As a Gold Certified Partner, Akonix has demonstrated expe......
[more] Worm appears as Microsoft antipiracy program Security analysts have detected a new piece of malware that appears to run as a Microsoft program used to detect unlicensed versions of its operating system. The malware has been classified as a worm and spreads through AOL's Instant Messenger program, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, a security vendor. Sophos is calling it W32.Cuebot-K, a new variation in the Cuebot family of malware. The worm has a range of mal......
[more] Hong Kong drafts first anti-spam law Hong Kong is readying its first anti-spam laws, promising fines and long prison terms for serious offenders.The Chinese territory currently has no laws specifically outlawing junk email, and recent surveys looking at the sources of spam have included Hong Kong and China among the worst in the world. The proposed new law appears to threaten companies which knowingly use spammers to market their products if they are based in, or do business in, Hong Kong.......
[more] Microsoft, Yahoo link their online instant messaging systems Yahoo and Microsoft released software that built a bridge between their previously exclusive online instant messaging (IM) systems. The move fulfilled a promise the US Internet titans made late last year and marked the first time rival global messaging service providers arranged to co-mingle members.It also signaled a continued erosion of the walls dividing users of IM and mobile telephone text messaging services, according to lead an......
[more] AOL produces instant messaging for business AOL has launched a new instant messaging application for business users. AIM Pro integrates with Microsoft Outlook, encrypts and scans messages and links to conferencing services from WebEx Communications. Around 14 million people already use AIM as a daily business tool, AOL said, but there have been increasing security concerns about using a consumer tool for confidential business interactions. AIM Pro Professional Edition (PE) hopes to meet these c......
[more] How to solve the problem of spam Regular BBC News columnist Bill Thompson explains what it is like to fall victim to a "joe job" in which spammers abuse someone's good name and then leave them to clear up the mess. About two weeks ago I started getting a lot of bounced e-mails. Most of them were notifications that my e-mail could not be delivered because the recipient didn't exist. Others were from spam filters to tell me I'd sent messages they were unwilling to accept. It seems I've been pushi......
[more] Aladdin eSafe Increases Security Through New IM File Transfer Blocking Aladdin eSafe now offers enhanced AppliFilter technology that blocks potentially harmful file transfers while still allowing legitimate IM messaging. Aladdin Knowledge Systems, the leader in Software DRM, identity management, and content security solutions, today announced its Aladdin eSafe gateway-based content security solution now offers enhanced AppliFilter features that allow organizations to block file sharing in Instan......
[more] Akonix A-Series offers complex, best-of-breed IM security The Akonix A-Series IM security appliances give enterprises control of instant messaging, a runaway app that can leave a yawning network security hole, and peer-to-peer traffic, a serious bandwidth hog and malware vector plaguing corporate networks. The A6000 we tested (the A1000 is aimed at SMBs) is enterprise-class hardware, with multiple network interface cards for clustering and a redundant hard drive. The A-Series runs AkOS, a propr......
[more] Employees Using Instant Messaging Put Companies at Risk According to a recent survey by Akonix Systems Inc., a provider of instant messaging (IM) security solutions, employees are unknowingly putting companies at risk for major security, legal and compliance issues by using instant messaging (IM) as a medium to share corporate information and communicate with external parties including customers and suppliers.The company said that nearly 60% of respondents to a July 2006 poll stated they use IM......
[more] Akonix: Most send business messages via IM According to new survey results released by Akonix Systems today, more than half of business people today are using instant messaging (IM) as a supplement to email communications. The messaging security company said that an informal poll of several hundred business people found that 60 percent of respondents use IM to communicate and share data with colleagues, partners and customers. According to Don Montgomery, vice president of marketing for the......
[more] Akonix A-Series Appliances Offer Native API Support for Jabber XCP 5.1 Akonix Systems, Inc., provider of the most deployed instant messaging (IM) security and compliance products in the world, today announced that version 5.1 of L7 Enterprise on its A-Series IM Security Appliances is the first product to integrate with Jabber, Inc.'s Jabber Extensible Communications Platform (Jabber XCP) 5.1 at the application programming interface (API) level. The combination of Akonix L7 Enterprise and Akonix......
[more] Patch management: Hold it together The constant need for patch management is a pain, taking up precious time and resources. Is there a better way? Gary Flood investigates. Patch management is undoubtedly one of the top bugbears of IT and security managers today. Software vendors, patch management suppliers and consultants have all worked to improve patching, but have they succeeded?Ultimately, patch management goes back to the twin IT security pillars of effective asset management - determining......
[more] Instant Messaging Attacks Jump 160 Percent in July Postini,a global leader in Integrated Message Management, announced last week that its Monthly Message Security & Management Update for July confirms a 160 percent increase over June in instant messaging (IM) attacks against corporate networks. In July, Postini detected and prevented new IM threats including Prokeylogger, which logs the keystrokes typed by the user, captures passwords and screenshots, and sends them to identity thieves.Post......
[more] IM News & Trends Watch This past week Google has updated its IM product, Google Talk with several new features. The file transfer feature, one of the most requested features by users, allows you to send unlimited files and folders through Google Talk. Google has placed no restriction on the file type or size. As you would expect the dismal feature allows you to leave a voicemail message when your Google Talk buddy isn't available. When users receive voicemail they are informed via an e-mail......
