Windows/NetBIOS pop-up Spam:

bofus writes "This article from Wired News presents a new way to deliver unsolicited advertising content - the MS Windows Messenger service. It appears that the client software hasn't been widely distributed yet, but it's probably only a matter of time before a free clone is circulating. This method could become the delivery method of choice for all kinds of unsolicited junk, given the number of unsecured PCs out there. On the flip side, if you run a relatively secured machine and have some sort of firewall, this probably shouldn't concern you."

Comments

Re:Do many people even use MS messenger?

[niola]

This is NOT MSN Messenger. It is MS messenger - a service built into windows. It basically is like the wall daemon in UNIX. Someone can send a broadcast message on the network and all other hosts get it. What has happened here is that some lowlife spammer has discovered that they can use this feature to annoy people. To make matters worse, they are doing it over port 135 as opposed to the standard 139 NetBIOS port which most people have blocked.

Mod parent up, please

[billstewart]

It's a good article.

One nitpick is that you don't need products like WebWasher if you're running Mozilla - you can set it not to "Open Unrequested Windows", and 95% of that stuff just vanishes.