Virus disguises itself as MSN Messenger Beta

Wednesday, December 28, 2005 by WebGizmos | Discussion: Internet

A virus masquerading as a new beta version of Microsoft's MSN Messenger has begun circulating, antivirus company F-Secure said on its blog Tuesday. The virus, which F-Secure calls Virkel.F, comes as a file called BETA8WEBINSTALL.EXE that can be downloaded from a Web site. Running the program installs not a new MSN Messenger beta, but rather a virus that sends download links to a computer user's MSN Messenger buddies. The virus falsely labels the link as "MSN Messenger 8 Working BETA." It also connects your machine to a botnet server," F-Secure warned, meaning that a person's computer can be controlled remotely to attack other machines or send spam.
Bichur
Reply #1 Wednesday, December 28, 2005 8:21 AM


BX
Reply #2 Wednesday, December 28, 2005 2:14 PM


_02
Reply #3 Wednesday, December 28, 2005 3:37 PM
I'm glad I don't use any messenger services.
sushiK
Reply #4 Wednesday, December 28, 2005 3:46 PM
Wow now that is a virus
Threi
Reply #5 Wednesday, December 28, 2005 4:07 PM
if the link doesnt point to microsoft messenger web site, then it shouldnt be downloaded...

viruses like these should be rather easy to spot....
Pete Morton
Reply #6 Saturday, December 31, 2005 11:38 AM
The age of intelligent virus activity is coming, folks. Viruses are becoming more and more sneaky...as Threi says, if the link doesn't point to MSN Messenger's site then don't download it. Simple.
PurrBall
Reply #7 Sunday, January 1, 2006 11:06 AM

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