Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 12/17/2008

Question
Carolyn, is there any reason to be suspicious if someone unknown shows up on your windows live messenger wanting to chat? I had thought you couldn't enter someones IM unless you added them to your list. How would you enter an IM without being on someones list or even having exchanged emails? Is there anything to be worried about here?   thank you

Answer
Yes, you do need to be suspicious. At one time it was possible to easily block away unwanted visitors. The problem is that purveyors of spam and other forms of computer crime now are big business, primarily operating out of countries that don't police against computer crime hardly at all, for example nations of the former Soviet Union and China. They employ many talented programmers who are willing -- or perhaps forced -- to create tools to invade your computer through IM, email, web browsing, you name it, they find ways to attack us.

So it is important to do all you can to prevent unwanted visitors to your computer as they may manage to steal from you, infect your computer with viruses, or at the least annoy you to heck with ads for fake Viagra.

Major companies that offer protection for Instant Messaging include Akonix http://www.akonix.com/ ScanSafe http://www.scansafe.com/ and  Symantec http://symantec.com