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Skype Worm Infects Windows PCs

Posted by kdawson on from the footsteps-of-msn-and-yahoo dept.

walterbays writes with news of a worm spreading to Windows PCs through Skype's IM. The worm is variously called Ramex.a and Pykspa.d. A poster on a Skype forum explains how to remove it. "After hijacking contacts from an infected machine's Skype software, it sends messages to those people that include a live link. Recipients who blithely click on the URL — which poses as a JPG image but is actually a download to a file with the .scr extension — wind up infected."

4 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Skype itself is blameless by ZwJGR · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Skype itself is (mostly) blameless, how can they be expected to protect users from this sort of attack (perhaps by pointing out to users that the link/download they're clicking on is a screensaver exe..., but Windows ought to tell you that anyway...)
    Naming it a worm is a minor overstatement as well.
    It propagates by user incompetence, not by a technical flaw...

    These sort of malware executables circulate on email lists (and I daresay, other IM networks) already, so it's no surprise that Skype has "joined the club" of being big enough to attract unwanted attention...

    --
    There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face - Ben Williams
    1. Re:Skype itself is blameless by gowen · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Skype itself is (mostly) blameless
      You what? Their program runs executable content from a URL without a warning or asking for confirmation. That's insanely bad design.
      --
      Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
  2. FIXED by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    s/some of the //

  3. Re:Worm? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Given your position of first post, I can't see how you could be anything but the first to point out this.