How safe is MSN Messenger? ....

IvaBigWun

.......... when it comes to viruses?

I read somewhere that it leaves a back door open to all sorts of shiite on your PC. I certainly remember Yahoo Messenger giving me serious grief a few years ago.

Anyone have any problems?

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.irma.ie

52 million instant messages were also sent to the computers of illegal filesharers worldwide, warning them of the consequences if they continued breaking the law.

DonkeyRhubarb

If Im correct, hacking a computer is defined as the unauthorised movement of the needle on a hard drive. Im certain these people didnt authorise these messages. Does this not say something? Do as I say, not do as I do!

projectmayhem

never had a problem with it. any sort of internet application like msn, aim, icq, mirc, etc. etc. are going to have some risks. but they're fairly minimal.

aidan_walsh

DonkeyRhubarb wrote:

If Im correct, hacking a computer is defined as the unauthorised movement of the needle on a hard drive. Im certain these people didnt authorise these messages. Does this not say something? Do as I say, not do as I do!

Thats a lousy definition of hacking... Not to mention a crappy IM client you have.

testicle

Some of these file sharing proggies have an IM facility.

K.O.Kiki

Weren't engineers of old called "hackers"?
All they did was mess with hardware & try to get it to do stuff, and they got paid for it Of course, I could be wrong

mp3guy

Not very, I recommend gaim

http://gaim.sourceforge.net

rsynnott

DonkeyRhubarb wrote:

If Im correct, hacking a computer is defined as the unauthorised movement of the needle on a hard drive. Im certain these people didnt authorise these messages. Does this not say something? Do as I say, not do as I do!

You're not correct

Voodoo2

MSN Mesenger is fine and secure once you have it uptodate and patched using windows update, about 6-8 months ago there was a security loop hole that allowed the transfer of a virus that in turn sent it to all in your contacts list, like the e-mails one, so uptodate is the answer, or use Trillian or something if you are still unsure

IvaBigWun

52 million instant messages were also sent to the computers of illegal filesharers worldwide, warning them of the consequences if they continued breaking the law.

This doesnt really relate to my question to be honest.

IvaBigWun

Any more takes on this? Im still a bit cautious about these kind of programs.

seamus

It's an easy enough one for spyware and viruses to propagate through. It's actually far easier to infect a person's machine by giving them a link to click than by trying to get in through a back door.

Many spyware programs will hijack your MSN messenger and spam your mates with links.

steveland?

A mate of mine has some virus that every time you open a window to her it sends a message telling me I can check who's blocked me by clicking on a block checker link...

I won't put the link up here but if anyone gets that message don't click it...

The virus was on the DCU computers for ages and a few people got it while talking to folks from DCU on the library computers through MSN Messenger

HungryJoey

steveland? wrote:

A mate of mine has some virus that every time you open a window to her it sends a message telling me I can check who's blocked me by clicking on a block checker link...

I won't put the link up here but if anyone gets that message don't click it...

The virus was on the DCU computers for ages and a few people got it while talking to folks from DCU on the library computers through MSN Messenger

Yeah I have experienced that one too Everytime I signed in I got 1 or 2 messages from people with the same link " Check who has blocked you ". Its gone now though, Havn't seen one in a while.

Hj

TomCo

steveland? wrote:

The virus was on the DCU computers for ages and a few people got it while talking to folks from DCU on the library computers through MSN Messenger

Those library computers are a joke, I had to restrain myself from tossing one of those things when it crashed after I clicked the print button in Adobe.