Ithaca College

AOL Instant Messenger users should be aware of some new threats (worms) that have recently been announced.

One of the worms, W32/Aimdes.E, disguises itself as a holiday greeting card. Once the link to the greeting card is clicked, the user's system becomes infected and the worm attempts to send itself to people on the user's buddy list. (See InfoWeek article http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=174903601).

Another worm, IM.Myspace04.AIM, is coded with some phrases of text chat to persuade the victim to click on a malicious URL embedded in the IM message. Again, an infected machine will attempt to send the worm to people on the user's buddy list. (See InfoWeek article http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=174903582).

Anyone who uses AIM is urged to be extremely cautious about clicking on links in IMs, even if they come from friends and family members on your buddy list. Take the time to reply to your buddy and ask them what the link leads to, and why they sent it. If it still seems suspicious, don't click the link.

As always, make sure your anti-virus software is up to date.

ITS Helpdesk