Microsoft Messenger Virus Hits Reuters IM

steman writes "Reuters had to temporarily shut down its private instant messaging service after being targetted by the W32/Kelvir-Re trojan. Reuters Messaging is implemented with Microsoft messenger technology and has more than 60,000 users. When activated, the Kelvir trojan sends itself to all users contacts via email and IM. Francis deSouza, chief executive of computer security provider IMLogic, said 'It just generated a flood of instant messages, so it suddenly slowed down the network for legitimate traffic. This is certainly a wake-up call, IM is just like any other communication media. The media needs to go hand-in-hand with security.'"

Comments

Precisely

[SilverspurG]

This is precisely why I stay away from P2P software and use bitlbee for my IM handling.

I simply do not trust that the corporate authors of these infinitely connected clients are also exhaustively pedantic about fireproofing their code. As real truth would have it, OSS clients have historically been more resilient than their commercial counterparts.

The tin foil side of me thinks that the corporations actually like having security holes in their clients. <conjecture> The head of the MS Messenger department has this brother who married this girl whose younger brother owns stock in this company which specializes in "desktop advertising". </conjecture> Not saying that it was on purpose, but somehow that project absolutely had to be shipped by $DATE, even though the security audit wasn't quite complete. Coincidence? Probably.

(NOTE: This is a repost because there are crack-whore trolls with mod points that modded the first one flamebait and the second one redundant... WTF? Hey trolls... QUIT STALKING ME!)

Precisely

[SilverspurG]

This is precisely why I stay away from P2P software and use bitlbee for my IM handling.

I simply do not trust that the corporate authors of these infinitely connected clients are also exhaustively pedantic about fireproofing their code. As real truth would have it, OSS clients have historically been more resilient than their commercial counterparts.

The tin foil side of me thinks that the corporations actually like having security holes in their clients. <conjecture> The head of the MS Messenger department has this brother who married this girl whose younger brother owns stock in this company which specializes in "desktop advertising". </conjecture> Not saying that it was on purpose, but somehow that project absolutely had to be shipped by $DATE, even though the security audit wasn't quite complete. Coincidence? Probably.

(NOTE: This is a repost because there are crack-whore trolls with mod points that modded the first one flamebait, the second one redundant, and the third one finally received some semblance of a human response... WTF? Hey mod-trolls... QUIT STALKING ME!)