Virus claims to be MSN Messenger beta

IDG News Service - MSN Messenger users who may think they're getting a sneak peek at the latest version of Microsoft Corp.'s instant messaging client are in for a nasty surprise, a Finnish security firm warned. A variation of the Virkel instant messaging virus has been circulating among MSN users, posing as a leaked beta version of MSN Messenger 8, according to F-Secure Corp.
The virus uses the MSN Messenger client to send download links to all of an infected user's contacts and connects the user's machine to a second "botnet" server, which could then be used to install unauthorized software on the machine.
Victims are being infected by clicking and installing the BETA8WEBINSTALL.EXE file that is being distributed via these download links, F-Secure said.
"There is no MSN Messenger 8 yet. Not in public beta anyway," F-Secure Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypponen wrote in a company blog.
However, Microsoft has released a beta version of its next-generation instant messaging client to a select number of users, but the software is not called MSN Messenger 8, according to a spokeswoman for the company's public relations agency. The beta software of the product, called Windows Live Messenger, was released on Dec. 12, she said via e-mail.
"The antivirus community is currently tracking a malicious threat which poses as 'MSN Messenger 8 Working BETA' and may spread to users via MSN Messenger," Microsoft's spokeswoman said in her e-mail. "We highly discourage anyone from downloading any betas from any site other than Microsoft/MSN sanctioned sites as we are not able to guarantee the authenticity of the files."