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Akonix Warns Of IM Threats
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2005-03-26
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
Akonix Systems alerted enterprise IT departments and IM users of the threat of phishing and other social engineering attacks over IM.
...As Yahoo! Messenger becomes one of the first targets for hackers looking to gain valuable confidential information from unsuspecting IM users.
Phishing is a common practice in email where attackers pose as legitimate institutions, such as banks, and encourage the message recipients to click on a URL. The Web site appears to be official and asks users to enter a confidential user name and password, often times to 'confirm their identity.' While email filtering tools are deployed at most enterprises to block phishing attempts, less than 10% off all enterprises have security solutions in place for IM networks, providing an attractive target for phishing schemes. The most recent IM phishing attack identified by the Akonix Security Center occurred over Yahoo! Messenger. Under this scam, users received a message from someone on their buddy list asking them to click on an apparent Yahoo! URL. Once the user enters their credentials on the Web site, the attacker has access to personal information stored on their Yahoo! Profile.
"With this year's explosive growth in IM worms and attacks, organizations can no longer afford to leave their IM users unprotected and unmanaged," said Francis Costello, chief marketing officer of Akonix Systems. "Phishing scams target sensitive data access utilizing unsuspecting employees, and worms can quickly compromise entire networks. Akonix provides the tools that allow organizations to continue to realize the productivity benefits and cost savings of IM while insulating their employees and networks from the growing threat of IM-based attacks."
Akonix L7 Enterprise is the only IM management solution that provides automatically updated security policies, in addition to integrated anti-virus scanning, to protect against phishing attacks and other threats propagating over IM. Along with the ability to block Spim (spam over IM) senders, Akonix L7 Enterprise provides the most comprehensive protection from IM-based attacks for corporate networks.
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SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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