msnchat threats

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vanessa

i visited an msn chat room today, specifically "escape"
under "health". i was asked by "mac" if my computer was
feeling sick at which point my connection was interrupted
then reestablished. i told "mac" that my computer was new,
not sick, and that i had i firewall in place. he responded
that it was not a very good firewall and stated
that "fluffy" was "messing around" with my computer. i am
very concerned and wondering if there is,in fact,a way
that another chatter could access my computer via the msn
chatroom. i have windows xp with the highest security
possible and have upgraded my virus protection within the
last 24 hours. i scanned for viruses immediately after
disconnecting from the chatroom and it turned up nothing.
however, when i tried to scan for viruses via your website
i was unable to run the scan. what should i do now?
obviously i am no expert, it is my first computer, so
please use layman's terms. sincerely, vanessa
 
Hi Vanessa,

Report any harassing chatters' nicknames to the Helpdesk chatroom

http://chat.msn.com/chatroom.msnw?rm=helpdesk

If you are up to date in your virus protection and your firewall is in
place, most likely "mac" is just toying with you. Admittedly there are many
attempts at hacking other's computers going on these days, but awareness is
the best prevention and I think you have taken the necessary precautions
already.

happy computing!

Mike
From: "vanessa" <[email protected]>
Sender: "vanessa" <[email protected]>
Subject: msnchat threats
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 14:20:06 -0700
Click to expand...
i visited an msn chat room today, specifically "escape"
under "health". i was asked by "mac" if my computer was
feeling sick at which point my connection was interrupted
then reestablished. i told "mac" that my computer was new,
not sick, and that i had i firewall in place. he responded
that it was not a very good firewall and stated
that "fluffy" was "messing around" with my computer. i am
very concerned and wondering if there is,in fact,a way
that another chatter could access my computer via the msn
chatroom. i have windows xp with the highest security
possible and have upgraded my virus protection within the
last 24 hours. i scanned for viruses immediately after
disconnecting from the chatroom and it turned up nothing.
however, when i tried to scan for viruses via your website
i was unable to run the scan. what should i do now?
obviously i am no expert, it is my first computer, so
please use layman's terms. sincerely, vanessa
Click to expand...


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i visited an msn chat room today, specifically "escape"
under "health". i was asked by "mac" if my computer was
feeling sick at which point my connection was interrupted
then reestablished.
Click to expand...

<snip>

It sounds like "Mac" is a booter. Most chat clients can be crashed by
another user who knows about the "Boot caode" for that client. Boot codes
are exploits that can cuase a chat client to crash. Usually by overrunning
the buffer.

This is not harmful to your computer. Merely annoying. I'd suggest you
visit one of the MSN "Computer themed" chat rooms and asking the people
there how you can protect yourself against booters. Don't ask how to boot
though. This usually pisses people off and gets you flamed.

David
 
Get hold of a firewall (eg the readily downloadable free Zone Alarm or
Sygate Personal Firewall), up to date anti-virus software and anti-spyware
tools like Spybot / Ad-aware. People can determine your ip address in such
environments which a hacker may then exploit but if you're well defended
then it will usually make little difference.

Jon
 
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