Monday, 30 July 2007

Akonix Finds 20 Malicious Code Attacks Over IM

Akonix Systems Inc., a provider of instant messaging security and compliance products, said that its IM Security Centre researchers have tracked 20 malicious code attacks over IM networks in July. This brings the total number of threats during 2007 to 226, a 78 per cent rise over the same time period last year.

New IM worms identified include Exploit-YIMCAM, Hupigon-SJ, InsideChatSpy, SpyPal, StealthChatMon, Svich and YahooSpyMon. Sohana was the most common with four variants, followed by IRCBot with three.

Akonix said attacks on P2P networks, such as Kazaa and eDonkey, increased 357 per cent this month with 32 attacks.

Don Montgomery, VP of marketing at Akonix said, “We've seen decreases in IM attacks during the summer months each of the past three years, but this year the decrease has been less, leading to the alarming year-to-year jump in IM threats of 78 per cent. Since most IT departments have secured email, but have left IM unprotected, it's only natural that hackers are adjusting their sights to delivering malicious code through the path of least resistance. In corporate networks, that path of least resistance is IM."