Online Theft through Other Channels
The world-wide-web and email are the 2 most widely used and abused functions of the Internet, but other services are also used to compromise vulnerable systems and steal personal information.
Chat services, such as AOL’s Instant Messaging, Microsoft’s Messenger, IRC, ICQ and Yahoo! Chat are also all too vulnerable.
Users face potentially malicious links sending you to a hacker’s legitimate-looking spoof website. It’s also very easy to pose as someone else by altering a few characters of a chat username or handle.
Files can be sent via chat sessions that are usually automatically stored in locations on a computer’s hard drive known to hackers, who can the trick victims into running destructive programs with a disguised web address in an email, chat window or web page.
Those who use these services should take every precaution to protect their personal information.
Related posts: