instant messenging

[wendilla]

Is it possible to pick up a virus with just general chat on yahoo or msn messenger or is it when you just accept a file which might have a virus.Just curious to know.Thanks

[fo3nix]

Unless there's some flaw in the system (there may be), then it should only really be possible if you download something that contains a virus.

[wendilla]

Thanks for your reply that is what i thought.

[jake-the-peg]

That is true if you mean virus in the strict sense of the word.

There are a number of so called IM worms

Kelvir for example sends IM messages with links to infected files on malicious websites.

Messages like Oh my god this is funny. Following the link that it points to will infect your machine and you will unknowingly send out IM messages to all your friends telling them about this "great site".

Just for good measure it'll look at your machine and see if it's running any anti-virus program - if it spots one it'll try to kill it.

It's important to get a good anti-virus program and personal firewall and keep up to date with it and updates from microsoft .

Virus writers these days don't tend to trash your machine as try to harvest information like your credi card details.

http://antivirus.about.com/od/virusdescription s/a/kelvir.htm

[wendilla]

Thank you for you interest and further explanation which is very helpful.