Security firm detects IM bot that chats with you

Bot replies with messages such as 'lol no its not its a virus'

By Nancy Gohring

December 7, 2005 12:00 PM ET

IDG News Service - A new form of malicious instant-message bot is on the loose that talks back to the user, possibly signifying a potentially dangerous trend, an instant messaging security firm said.
IMlogic Inc. issued the warning late yesterday after citing a recent example of such a malicious bot. On Monday, the company first published details of a new threat known as IM.Myspace04.AIM. Once the computer of an America Online Inc. IM user is infected, the bot sends messages to people on the infected user's buddy list, making the messages appear to come from the infected user. The user isn't aware that the messages are being sent. If recipients click on a URL sent with a message, they will also become infected and start spreading the virus.
A bot is a program that can automatically interact with people or other programs. AOL, for example, has bots that let users ask questions via IM, such as directory queries, and the bot responds.
The unusual part of this malicious bot is that it replies to messages. If a recipient responds after the initial message, the bot replies with messages such as "lol no its not its a virus" and "lol thats cool." Because the bot mimics a live user interaction, it could increase infection rates, IMlogic said.
IMlogic continues to analyze this threat but so far it seems to only be propagating and not otherwise affecting users.
An AOL spokesman said today that the company's IT staff has not yet seen the bot appear on its network. The company said it reminds its users not to click on links inside IM messages unless the user can confirm that he knows the sender and what is being sent.
Some similar IM worms install spybots or keyloggers onto users' computers, said Sean Doherty, IMlogic's director of services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Such malicious programs record key strokes or other user activity in an effort to discover user passwords or other information.
"What we're seeing with some of these worms is they vary quickly, so the initial one may be a probe to see how well it infected users, and then a later variant will be one that may put a spybot out," Doherty said. The initial worm could be essentially a proof of concept coming from the malware writers, he said.

Computerworld staff writer Todd Weiss contributed to this article.

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2009 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Additional Resources

POLL RESULTS

Leading IT Pros Weigh In on Top IT Issues

Accelerate your knowledge of the IT world you inhabit by viewing the results of a series of polls taken by your IT peers. These polls of 100+ IT professionals each are available for full viewing. They cover key topics such as virtualization, processor performance, green IT, cloud computing and many others. Be a part of the buzz.

WHITE PAPER

For Best Results, Think Beyond the Box

Technology is complex. Keeping it running productively shouldn't be. To that end, you want to minimize the number of solutions needed in-house to simplify operations, maintenance, and support. Kodak offers a best-practices model. One company provides support for both scanner and software, for fast problem resolution without vendor finger-pointing. Download now!

WHITE PAPER

Accelerating the Path to Demand Intelligence with a Demand Signal Repository

Utilizing demand intelligence improves the precision of pricing, product assortments, channel/store placement, and promotion, which are all essential for sustainable revenue management performance. Learn more, download this free whitepaper today.

White Papers & Webcasts

Sustaining SOX Compliance: Best Practices to Mitigate Risk, Automate Compliance, and Reduce Costs
Since the adoption of SOX, much has been learned about IT compliance. Discover how to make SOX efforts more effective in "Sustaining Sox...

Why Compliance Pays
This OnDemand webcast explores the relationship that firms with best compliance records have higher revenue, greater customer retention, lower financial losses from data...

IDC White Paper: CCM for IT Compliance and Risk Management
Learn from industry analysts how IT organizations are using configuration management to meet compliance requirements and instill best practices. Find out how these...

Best Practices for Managing Business Risks from the Use of IT
(Source: Symantec) Based on exhaustive benchmarks conducted by the IT Policy Compliance, this session highlights the relationship between business risks and use of...

Keep it Clean: Maintaining the Integrity of your CMDB through Change Detection
Learn how configuration drift can challenge configuration management database (CMDB) integrity and how a configuration audit tool and an effective change management process...

Managing And Protecting Your Ever Increasing Mobile Assets
(Source: Absolute Software) Your users are becoming more mobile each day. This is great for productivity - yet challenging for IT control. Natalie...

The Tripwire HIPAA Solution: Meeting the Security Standards Set Forth in Section 164
HIPAA requires businesses that handle personal health information (PHI) to set up strong controls to ensure the security and integrity of that information....

Sun OpenSSO Enterprise Webinar
(Source: Sun) This webinar replay discusses Sun OpenSSO Enterprise innovation--the single, open-source solution that helps your business solve the challenges around internal access...

Configuration Assessment: Choosing the Right Solution
Configuration assessment lets businesses proactively secure their IT infrastructure and achieve compliance with important industry standards and regulations. Learn why configuration assessment is...

Agile Enterprise Content Management (ECM) for Rapid ROI
(Source: IBM) Content rich business processes are a core feature of daily operations at just about any organization today. Very often these essential...

All White Papers | All Webcasts