Dangers of IM

Instant Messaging has brought many new conveniences to today’s society, for example efficient and fast communication and easy peer to peer file sharing. However, with these good things, it also has brought along new dangers and risks while using it. Here, we discuss some of the possible risks using Instant Messaging might bring, and how it has affected us.

Some risks and dangers of Instant Messaging include:

  1. Impersonation

    2. As in our interview with Mr Soon, we have found out that it is possible for someone to impersonate another person over Instant Messaging. This is dangerous because if someone impersonates you and does bad things, the first person that the trail will be traced back to will be you. One possible way of impersonation would be:

    First, the impersonator sends a keylogger (a software designed to record down keystrokes and send them back to the impersonator) to the victim, usually disguised as a harmless file, through Instant Messaging. Then, the victim receives and opens the file, unknowingly opening the keylogger, and the next time the victim enters his password into the Instant Messaging client, it will be recorded and sent back to the impersonator. The impersonator will then know the victim’s password, and can log in to his account to assume his identity and can therefore impersonate the victim.

    One way to avoid this method would be to check if any files you are about to receive come from a trusted source.

  2. Real life crime

    3. Instant Messaging brings along with it one of the most dangerous problem, which is the possibility of real life crime being committed. It is possible for perpetrators to get into others’ bank accounts and steal money from them, using the ‘advertisement’ method in point 3 to get them to reveal their bank account information. In this case, the perpetrator will probably get the victim to enter his bank account details to complete the ‘transaction’.

    Instant Messaging could also draw in more sex related crimes. Due to the anonymity faced on Instant Messaging, it means that people can appear not as who they are. It is very hard to determine a person’s age, occupation, and even gender through Instant Messaging because people can lie about their true age and other details. Paedophiles can make use of this weakness to lie to teenagers that they are 16 years old when they are actually 40. If the paedophile can make the victim meet in person in a secluded area, then it is possible for the crime to be committed.

  3. Stolen/loss of personal information

    4. Instant Messaging can allow people to have their personal information stolen more easily, possibly because of their unawareness on the many ways that can be used to do it, or their carelessness in certain situations.

    The method specified in point 1 can also be used to steal personal information, that is, using a keylogger to record down anything typed. Besides that, people can also use fake advertisements to lure people into giving them their personal information. One such example would be:

    The perpetrator would first tell the victim that he has won an online lottery (untrue of course), and he makes use of the chance to tell the victim that he needs some of his personal information to, for example, complete some transaction. The victim, then would be happy that he won something, and would not mind or care to give that personal information away, and by the time it is realized, it might be already too late.

  4. Spamming/flaming

    5. Instant Messaging can allow people to have their personal information stolen more easily, possibly because of their unawareness on the many ways that can be used to do it, or their carelessness in certain situations.

    Usually, the spammer would request to be a contact of the victim, and when the victim accepts, the spammer is free to start a conversation with the victim, filling it with nonsense or emoticons. This is disruptive to the victim as some Instant Messengers make a sound when a new message is sent, and can decrease the computer’s speed if many animated emoticons are sent at the same time. However, this can easily be countered by totally blocking or removing the spammer from the contact list.

  5. Damage to computer/important files

    6. Again, the file sharing features of Instant Messengers can be used to send malicious software using the method described in point 1. However, there are some differences. Firstly, the perpetrator would attempt to send a file through the Instant Messaging service to the victim, with the virus or other malicious software hidden inside. When the victim opens the file, or possibly even after he downloads the file, the program will begin to modify or delete files in the victim’s computer.

    If the files deleted are important system files, or files required to start certain programs, the computer will not run properly, and if these changes are irreversible, the victim may have to spend money to buy a new hard drive. Furthermore, if the victim sends the infected file unknowingly to other users, the malicious software could start spreading and affect a large number of people.

    Due to the fact that many files with malicious software contain the extension .exe (executable file) and other weird or suspicious extensions, this can be avoided by checking the file extension for a possibility of malicious software inside.

©The Probl(IM)s Group 2008