Avoid the Santa Claus worm
This Christmas season most of you are probably sending holiday greetings to your acquaintances, friends, and families via instant messaging. This is not entirely new, but in any case just be safe on what you download from an IM message, even if it is from a person you trust because there is a small chance that his/her instant messenger is compromised by the worm.
Amongst the Santa Claus worms, there is a IM.GiftCom.All which has spread quite commonly in the net. This worm attempts to trick Microsoft MSN and Yahoo Instant-messaging users to click on a file that delivers unwanted software to users’ computer.
It attempts to dupe IM users into thinking an acquaintance has sent them a link to a harmless Santa Claus file. Once users click on the file, they will see an image of Santa. At the same time, a so-called rootkit will be installed into their system without their notice. A rootkit is a tool designed to go undetected by the security software used to lock down control of a computer after an initial hack. The malicious attacker can then distribute messages to the user’s IM contacts, using a similar technique to lure the unsuspecting acquaintance to click on the link.
This is an old virus (2 years) so it will be identified by most anti-virus today. But if you got infected, you can get a removal tool at PCTools.com.
[via mydigitallife.info]
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