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Three Tips to Enhance Yahoo Messenger Security

What you should do to protect yourself

By Bogdan Popa, Security and Search Engines Editor

23rd of August 2007, 14:25 GMT

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The very popular Yahoo Messenger can quickly turn into an extremely dangerous software solution is some user is so naive to be tricked by malicious users. Recently, it was reported that a simple vulnerability discovered in the instant messaging client can enable an attacker to control an affected system and obtain private information stored on the computer. But what's more dangerous is that some of the users agree to download and install malicious programs that can harm their computers

in a matter of minutes. That's why I decided to present you the basic three tips to remain protected while you're chatting on Yahoo Messenger.

Ignore dangerous users

First of all, you should know that Yahoo Messenger can easily turn into a very annoying solution if you're chatting with some persons who should not be in your contact list. That's why it's safer to ignore all the unknown users because some of them might try to attack your computer. Because the instant messaging client will ignore them, the packets sent through the application will also be rejected so you'll remain protected. If you want to ignore all the users who are not in your list, you can do so with ease by using a special function implemented into Yahoo Messenger.

Refuse unsolicited files

Some of the attackers are attempting to harm a computer by tricking users to download and install malicious applications. That's why you're advised to avoid downloading unsolicited files unless you know they are clean and sent by a trusted source. For example, a hacker who managed to install a dangerous tool on your computer has full control over it so that's the moment when you should shut down your PC.

Avoid giving your username and password

I heard cases when some of the users created Yahoo IDs that might trick other connected members to give their username and password. Please keep in mind that Yahoo will never contact you to provide the private information so, if some ID such as YahooAdmin requires you these details, you should avoid answering and add the ID to the ignore list.

TAGS:

yahoo | messenger | security

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