ads through email and IM accounts

[mkrahmeh]

gurus
recently i came to notice that some email accounts are being accessed from outsiders, trying to use the contact lists in there to send spam mails and advertisements..
this may not be new..but what just shocked me that the same kind of attack just happened through IM (kopete); a friend just sent me a buzz! and a small message about a product for losing weight !!!
well my friend was not online as i called him immediately.

did anyone notice such things ? i think its a bit intimidating not be sure who you are chatting with, right ?? :lolflag:

[HermanAB]

Let me guess: Your friend is not using Linux?
:)

Once a machine has been compromized the perpretator can do *anything* with it. It is as good as using SSH to access a remote server.

[mkrahmeh]

actually he doesn't !!
but the strange thing is that he never signed in that day (to his yahoo account). I always hear about security risks when passwords are cracked or stolen as they transfer through network channels, but ain't this resolved by network security measures like SSL and the like ?

i know linux is secure and all..but it doesnt mean that other OSs users like MS cannot be secured, and all in all, network security protocols are supposed to be independent of the platform used. what can these crackers do to MS users that cannot be done to, let's say, linux users, in the presence of such security protocols ?

[HermanAB]

Windows (all versions) have more security holes than a Swiss cheese. There are good reasons why Cisco and others use Linux to run their firewall and router devices.

Your friend should install and run Spybot Search and Destroy and ClamWin:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
http://www.clamwin.com/content/view/18/46/

[ugm6hr]

I have had 2 friends send me spam mail from hotmail (which they obviously never sent themselves).

I log into my email from home (on Linux), but have to use MS machines at work. I know that the work network is not exactly secure, since I appear to be able to install applications with admin rights on some of them).

Not really ideal, but I can't not (apologies - double negative) check my email at work.

Just have to live with the risk...

Never had an IM spam message though...

[mkrahmeh]

thx for the input gurus..but regardless of the browser, be it IE or firefox or any other, dont they all use SSL when the user is logging to his email account ?? how come some users who use particular systems are compromised ? as i said, internet security is supposed to be platform independent..