Experts: Microsoft-Yahoo alliance is food for IM worms

by admin October 13, 2005 at 1:19 pm

The planned bridge between MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger has one drawback, experts warn: It could act as a conduit for a massive IM worm outbreak.

On Wednesday in the US, Microsoft and Yahoo announced that they would make their instant-messaging services interoperable. By the middle of next year, users of both are expected to be able to exchange instant messages, see if their contacts are online, share emoticons, add friends from either service and make PC-to-PC voice calls.

But the partnership has a flipside, an instant-messaging security expert said. “As Microsoft, Yahoo and others connect their global IM networks, IM worms will spread faster and attack a larger population of end-users,” said Jon Sakoda, chief technology officer at messaging security company IMlogic.

Instant-messaging service users are being hit with more worm and malicious code attacks than ever before. The number of threats detected for IM and peer-to-peer networks rose 3,295 percent in the third quarter of 2005, compared with last year, according to a recent IMlogic report. The company sells products to help businesses protect themselves against IM-borne pests, in competition with companies such as Akonix Systems.

Full article: ZDNet Australia