New Generation of IM Worms

According to Kaspersky Labs, new generation of instant messaging worms is spreading across protocols and platforms. We have seen a lot of worms which were specific to a single instant messaging protocol, for example MSN or AOL. However, the next generation of worms poses a much greater threat because of their ability to use different IM protocols to spread. And more - they can attack both Microsoft Windows and Mac platforms.

Of course, if the instant messaging user is smart and careful enough, the computer will be safe. It's very important not to open any attachments or URLs sent by unknown persons. Even more - if you receive an attachment or URL by someone in your buddy list, always ask him what he's sending you. Maybe he doesn't even know that his computer is under the control of a worm.

Meanwhile, Postini announced that there is a 160% increase over June in instant messaging attacks against corporate networks. One of the detected IM threats is Prokeylogger, which logs every key you type on your keyboard and gets your passwords. Then it sends this information to their owners, which can get details about your e-mails, credit cards, other sensitive personal information.

Free calls in US and Canada

All US and Canadian-based Skype customers can now make free SkypeOut calls to traditional landline and mobile phones in the US and Canada. This offer is valid until the end of 2006 year.

While SkypeOut calls within the US and Canada will now be free, SkypeOut calls to and within all other countries will continue to incur charges. Those charges are unchanged by today’s announcement and remain among the lowest available to consumers.

Skype website

Download the latest Skype 2.0.0.105 (Windows)

Important Update for Miranda IM Users

There is an important patch for Miranda IM. If you use the ICQ protocol you could lose some messages. The bug is defined as "unknown TLV(19) bug".

To fix this problem, you have to download and replace the file icq.dll in the Miranda folder.

Download icq.dll

It seems that the ICQ protocol has been changed a little bit and that's why only the official ICQ client is working properly. Other clients like Miranda and QIP must be updated. For QIP you just need to download the latest alpha version.

Internet Call Company to Sue Google for $5bn

Google is being sued by a small New York internet call company that claims to hold patents for the technology that enables voice calls to be made over the internet. The New York-based Rates Technology said it would probably seek damages of about $5bn. It alleges that the internet search engine has infringed its patents with the recently launched Google Talk.

Jerry Weinberger, chief executive of Rates Technology Inc (RTI), said he was the inventor of software programming that allows telephone calls to be placed over the Internet. Weinberger alleged that Google has abused two patented RTI software programs in Google Talk, which enables users to talk through a computer headset or to instant message each other for free.

RTI claims companies including Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Yahoo and Lucent have made one-off payments for use of its patents and that the firm is in similar talks with Time Warner and eBay. It is in legal action with others. Google (Steve Langdon) said the suit was without merit.

Google Plans to Standardize Multimedia Instant Messaging

Earlier this week, Google shared its plans for the future unification of the instant messaging (IM) market. The benevolent overlord of modern Internet innovation, Google has become a tremendous stabilizing force within the complex ecosystem of web-based services. When Google released their Jabber-based IM application earlier this year, they promised consumers that they would vigorously pursue protocol interoperability in order to facilitate communication between users of different IM systems. Since the birth of text-based Internet chat in the 1980s, countless IM protocols and applications have emerged to meet the rapidly growing demand for interactive text communication. AOL's ubiquitous AIM service is thought to have over 50 million active users, a number that continues to increase as more consumers take up the habit.

Google chose to use Jabber's Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) for its own Google Talk application because XMPP is a well-documented open protocol fit for standardization and extension. The broad availability of XMPP support in open source communication applications ensures that users of all common platforms, including Linux and OS X, will be able to interact with Google Talk users. Working closely with the nonprofit Jabber Software Foundation (JSF), Google plans to bring voice and video communication services to all XMPP-compliant IM utilities. Described in a Jabber Enhancement Proposal, the new peer-to-peer voice and video standard is currently called Jingle. An open source implementation called Libjingle has already been released by Google under a BSD-style license. For those not in the know, BSD licenses are very permissive, facilitating commercial redistribution even in proprietary applications, which means that closed source IM applications like AOL's AIM client can take advantage of the code.

Google recently hired Sean Egan, one of the lead developers of a popular open source IM application called Gaim. Egan and other Gaim developers have already managed to integrate Google Talk's voice features into the Gaim 2.0 branch, which is scheduled for release next month. (Interested users might want to take a look at the beta release!)

After Google's acquisition of a five percent stake in AOL last week, both companies decided that it would be advantageous to implement complete interoperability between Google Talk and AIM. Now that Google has the uncontested champion of IM technologies on its buddy list, it has the leverage it needs to get other services to jump on the interoperability bandwagon.

/arstechnica/

Instant messengers becoming medium of choice

The researches show that more and more people are using Instant Messengers instead of emails.
Is the faster communication the only reason? Maybe the instant messaging is more like a live meeting between the people and this is really important for most of them.

This info is part of the results of the AOL's survey:

"Instant messaging is overtaking email as the preferred way to
communicate, especially among teens and young adults. Overall,
IM's are up 19 percent year over year, with many Americans sending
as many, if not more, IM's than they do emails, according to
AOL's Instant Messaging Trends Survey.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents say they send as many or more
IM's than emails. But for teens and young adults that number is
vastly higher with two-thrids reporting they send more IM's than
emails, up from 49 percent last year.

At work, 58 percent of IM users send instant messages to
colleagues for answers to questions, 49 percent to make business
decisions, and 29 percent use IM to interact with customers or
clients. Twelve percent have used IM to avoid a difficult
face-to-face conversation. "

Source: WebProNews