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IM, P2P Attacks Persist, Pose Low Risk
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-03-28
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The immediacy of someone potentially clicking on a malicious link delivered by instant messenger or a peer to peer network conversely makes these attacks a low risk.
Trust is on the side of an attacker who manages to compromise IM accounts and send links to people on the buddy list. Someone who isn't paying attention might go ahead and click a link in the IM window, to the delight of the slimeball who sent it instead of the legitimate account holder.
Security vendor Akonix said their IM Security Center researchers tracked two dozen attacks over instant messenger and P2P through the month of March. Several new worms emerged, indicating a greater interest in the vector from criminals.
The attacks also demonstrate how the shift in attacks continues to take malicious people away from the operating system and to applications. Common security features, notably the introduction of a firewall into the default install of Windows XP years ago, forced criminals to shift vectors.
Millions of people use IM and P2P in a variety of settings. With so many targets, the focus from criminals proved inevitable, as it has with emailing malicious links and setting up drive-by attacks on websites through code injection.
Currently, the worms being dispatched across IM pose a low risk to recipients. If someone chooses not to download something arriving over the network, the attack does not happen. Proactive security measures on a system should help mitigate that risk even further.
View All Articles by David Utter
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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