Anders Jacobsen's blog: BuddyLinks - a new twist on IM spam
CNN: IM game spreads virulent ad-delivery software
Photo courtesy Anders Jacobsen
In a scheme only a contract lawyer could love, a new program sends itself to all the IM buddies on a victim's computer, posing itself as a game that needs to be installed (and permissions given to do so). Once installed, it starts the process again, spamming many friends. Technically, the users give the program general permissions to do whatever it pleases, so it's not really - strictly speaking - a worm or a trojan horse.
Once infecting a network of friends, the "BuddyLinks" program will periodically send "funny" material through the network as a kind of forced viral marketing effort. The company takes advantage of the fact that users generally click through permissions, disclaimers and user contracts without reading them while installing software - especially software they falsely believe was deliberately sent by a trusted friend.
