IM Security

[jayadev]

I am very concerned about the security of my messenger. I have read several reports online where the writers have questioned the security in popular IM's like MSN, Yahoo etc. I have a firewall and an antivirus installed in my system. Do you think that I should be concerned with the security issue?

 

[Mirage]

Are you talking about other people reading your messages, or people hacking your computer through IM?

I think the latter is very unlikely, however there is no way to be sure who is reading your messages since it all goes through a central server. Somebody at AOL could be reading everything we say and we would never know.

They probably have a privacy policy that states that they don't do that though, but it is possible of course.

 

[jayadev]

Thanks Andrew, you have got it right. I am more concerned about the security of my PC and at the same time my messages. There is very little we can do if anyone reads our messages in between. Thanks for your suggestion.

 

[JohnR]

I'm not really concerned about someone peeping at my messages. If they really want to see them, I will send them to them. I have nothing to hide. If I did, I would email it!

 

[Mirage]

I have nothing to hide. If I did, I would email it!

Just don't email to or from yahoo.

They have been known to give out emails and other private data. It happened with them in China and it could certainly happen in the US..

 

[myessence]

I very concerned security my messenger. Be carefull accept stranger messenge from your friend. Issuee, phising in email and YM. very danger. you data can to kidnaping. Change your password and update scanvirus or you can using GAIM ....

 

[Doc]

The virus issue isn't an issue over instant messengers. It's hard for people to get ahold of your screen name. The easy way to avoid them is to just not accept files from people. Also, if someone sends you a random link saying "Click here and download video - it's hilarious", don't click. That's about the only real security risks with messengers anymore.

 

[hemisync]

There's already good advice in this thread. I would make sure not to download anything unless you make sure the person sent it. And just not share really personal information over IM save that for email, or phone otherwise I find IM is rather safe