Shoutbox

As I'm a computer geek, this feels quite embarrasing to admit. Yes, I accidentely accepted a virus transfer on MSN an hour ago

Well, this is not just a problem affecting me in terms of embarrasement, it also affects all my contacts, and eventually their contacts and so on. Viruses spread easy on MSN and then you just sit there, watching the chat windows go crazy all over the screen. Well, it's possible to stop it by CTRL+ALT+DELETE, but then the virus already has spread itself to half a dozen of contacts. If you restart MSN just to change your alias to "Warning I'm infected by a virus, please wear protection to prevent it from spreading", the virus just takes over and makes a new attempt to infect all the contacts.

For that reason I think it would be a great idea to add a small button in MSN which prevents all kind of file transfer, both in and out. So you can start MSN to tell all of your friends about the virus, and even have the main function (chatting) left on, during the virus-removal-procedure.

I don't know whether this is possible or not, or if it sounds interesting for the rest of the community, but one thing I know for sure, is that this will be really helpful during a virus infection. Maybe it sounds really unneccessary to add a whole extra button just for this task. Well tell that to the guys who designs keyboards and adds two unuseful Windows-buttons. Maybe this would be a great improvement of the security for all MSN users around the globe.

//T0nnan

quote:

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Originally posted by t0nnan
add a small button in MSN which prevents all kind of file transfer, both in and out.

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problem is, most WLM viruses are spread using a plain text link (url), so blocking file transfers would not make a difference at all.

Just don't click any urls you receive without asking what it is and if your contact has sent it him/herself.

well, yea, i know. the thing is that its getting more and more usual to see the ones that directly infects the system, and then takes control over msn so it can replicate itself automatically in zip-archives using the file transfer function in WLM as i have noticed. But i have fixed that problem now by using aMSN in Linux instead, this works much smoother. But maybe it could be a good idea to add a security tab in the msgpluslive-menu loaded with settings that could increase the protection against viruses and other threats.

You could have an option to blank out all URL's sent in text and all file tranfsers, and so on. So in emergency you can blank them out to avoid trouble. Scripts for this are possible I am asuming

Yes, exactly Cloudly, would'nt it be a very useful script when your MSN goes totally crazy on just sending viruses to the contacts.. Well it's always possible to install aMSN, which the virus isn't constructed for. But Messenger Plus live is made for WLM, and it's of everybody's interest to improve the program in all aspects. The main thing with this software isn't "hey lets add lots of funny functions so we can have funnier", but it is made to improve WLM. So lets improve the security in the worlds biggest security issue, a program that in fact is on 24/7 on the most computers, and that by this plus-addon can acept file transfers automatically. Its like a big black hole in thousands of computers.

Disabling file transfers may not be a bad idea indeed. I'll check that out.

Although I have to say I count on Microsoft to fix this on their side one way or the other. They don't have much choice.

Indeed, this feature should be included in WLM from scratch, so the security is as high as possible, even without the Plus-addon.

Microsoft are sloppy when blocking viruses. They block all messages containing .pif .scr, or staff.php. They have now took the ridiculous step off blocking all .info domains as well! They don't block specific URL's, which is the huge problem with the Messenger team and their sloppy programming.

if it's someone i don't talk to and they send a file (like the photo album thing, 1 guy seemed persistant in sending it) i always ask if there's any reason they're sending it to me or if it's a URL, i'll go on it, if it starts trying to download something that looks suspicious, i don't download it, if it downloads anyway, then antivir goes nuts and deletes it before it touches my harddrive, simple

well, some dont antivirus software, some dont update their antivirus software, some antivirus applications dont "go nuts" by the users' custom config, some well-written viruses can execute some of its self-replicating code without being detected, some users are tired and just clicks on the link/accept for the virus without thinking about it, and some users of this plus-addon have auto-accept on for file transfers. And its not only the guys you dont talk to on msn that can get infected by a virus.

Well, there are so many factors, and by a tiny little option that turns off the file transfer scripts in MSN you could make a little difference by stopping a huge quantity of the viruses spreading through MSN.
And thats the main idea, that i was aiming for when i started this thread. There are probably lots of tweaks you can add to MSN for preventing spreading of viruses, and its really worth the effort.