A new Holiday worm called IM.GiftCom.All is attacking IM clients. The worm prompts users to visit a festive website featuring Santa Claus and downloads a malicious software on the user’s computer.


A new Holiday worm called IM.GiftCom.All is attacking IM clients.

The worm prompts users to visit a festive website featuring Santa Claus. But when users click on the link, they are taken to a different website which downloads malicious software into the user’s computer.

The malicious software shuts down the computer’s anti-virus system and collects personal information which can be distributed over the internet.

“When this file is executed, it hides itself and scans the registry, file system, and internet cache. By operating as a rootkit, the process is hidden from all tools and anti-virus software.” [Source]

The worm is distributed using the AIM, ICQ, Windows Messenger and Yahoo! IM clients.

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