Instant Messaging 101

Hi. I'm a newbie and a little bit overwhelmed about all I thought I knew - but now realise that I have absolutely no idea about!!

Even at my low point of the learning curve, I know that instant messaging is vulnerable to exploits and has major security issues. The thing is, how do I go about highlighting these problems - that is, providing 'working examples' - without compromising my own (Windows) system?

So far I've just been experimenting with user stupidity and common sense (yes, that's a viable problem); finding the IP address; port scanning; packet sniffing; password cracking, and virus protection.

Currently the programmes I am testing are :

* ICQ
* Trillian (with ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM and MSN accounts)
* Jabber / Business IM
* ePOP
* SCIM
* CryptTalk

Any help, advice or direction would be very much appreciated.

Everything is vulnerable, get a compiler..... Thats all im saying.... I dont understand what you are saying so I wont go into detail =)

hes asking how to exploit IM's. he wants to Fµ¢K with people

I'm not wanting to mess with anyone ... I have a uni assignment based on IM and security! As I personally don't use IM, it has been a steep learning experience for me - in a limited time frame.

I was merely trying to get a handle on some of the (less obvious) aspects I may have missed. Oh well, it was worth a try. ;)