Topic: IM virus 'talks' to victims

[Clive]

WebUser
December 8, 2005
Quentin Reade

A new virus that 'talks' to its victims via instant messaging software has been discovered.

The worm targets people using of AOL's Instant Messenger (IM) service, and, once infected, the Bot sends users new messages that appear to come from the infected user and attempts to persuade the message recipient to download malicious content.

The sophisticated Bot attack is programmed so that infected users cannot see the messages the worm is sending on their behalf.

When recipients of the malicious message reply to the infected user, the Bot running on the infected machine sends follow-up messages that include "lol no its not its a virus".

IMlogic, the company that uncovered the virus dubbed IM.Myspace04.AIM, says the virus leverages similar social engineering techniques to other IM worms, but will be more successful because it interacts with users.

Once downloaded, the virus starts sending itself to contacts in the victim's IM contacts list.