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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Virus disguises itself as MSN Messenger beta By Stephen Shankland, CNET News.com December 28, 2005 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Virus-disguises-itself-as-MSN-Messenger-beta/0,130061744,139230026,00.htm
A virus masquerading as a new beta version of Microsoft's MSN Messenger has begun circulating, antivirus company F-Secure said on its blog. The virus, which F-Secure calls Virkel.F, comes as a file called BETA8WEBINSTALL.EXE that can be downloaded from a Web site. Running the program installs not a new MSN Messenger beta, but rather a virus that sends download links to a computer user's MSN Messenger buddies. The virus falsely labels the link as "MSN Messenger 8 Working BETA." "It also connects your machine to a botnet server," F-Secure warned, meaning that a person's computer can be controlled remotely to attack other machines or send spam. Malicious software that uses instant messenger programs is growing more common. A November study by Akonix Systems identified 62 examples. And Microsoft's instant-messenger infrastructure is the most popular conduit for attack, IMlogic said in an October study.
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