New MSN Messenger Trojan Spreading Quickly

[Humpty]

An MSN Messenger Trojan is growing a botnet by hundreds of infected PCs per hour.

 

A Trojan is introducing malware into thousands of computer systems worldwide, and the number is growing by the hour.

 

The malware is being introduced by MSN Messenger files posing as pictures, mostly seeming to come from known acquaintances.

 

The files are a new type of Trojan that has snared several thousand PCs for a bot network within hours of its launch earlier on Nov. 18 and is being used to discover virtual PCs as a means of increasing its growth vector.

 

The eSafe CSRT (Content Security Response Team) at Aladdin?a security company?detected the new threat propagating around noon EST on Nov. 18. At 18:00 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), eSafe had detected 1 operator and more than 500 on-command bots in the network. Less than three hours later, or by 2:30 EST, when eWEEK spoke with Roei Lichtman, eSafe director of product management, the number had soared to several thousand PCs and was growing by several hundred systems per hour.

Article

[login123]

Well, Humpty, that sent me into a paroxysm of reading. Found tons of information about VM rootkits. Good info. Thanks.

 

I'm gonna go lock the door.

[q231]

good thing is im not using MSN but that news is kinda scary

[DennisD]

Thanks for that Humpty, my daughter uses Messenger a lot.

[CeeCee]

good thing is im not using MSN

I don't use it either. It's removed from my system. I got Trillian, but hardly never use it (anymore).

[New_Age]

how does it get into the system? clicking on a link or something? i use MSN and haven't noticed anything.

[Dutch]

I use Msn Messenger and haven't noticed anything either as YET. Of course I haven't use IM in the last week. Confused as how its getting through.