Preventing geting hacked threw ICQ

[Killar_Boy]

A few months ago i was playing this game starcraft and someone told me to download ICQ. So i thought it would be an ok messenger service so i downloaded it? A few minuts later after it was downloaded i started talking to the person with ICQ and what do ya know about 3 minuts later about 4 hackers hacked in to my computer! Printing, typing messeges whil im playing this game and going threw all my files! I like icq and all but is there any way i can use it and not be hacked?

Killar_Boy

[Vorlin]

Yeah, write down your UIN for later usage and go get Trillian as it covers ICQ/AIM/Yahoo/MSN/IRC but doesn't have 1/10 of the bloated code that the others do. The current version is 0.71 and if whoever you're talking with has Trillian as well, you can set up 128-bit secure (blowfish) tunneling between you two and it's encrypted communication. I HIGHLY recommend that.

[ThePreacher]

Well Killar_boy if you dont want to be hacked, dont go around saying that "I am a real hacker", then ask "Where can I find sub7", then tell people, "I am 14 years old". If you avoid these statements in conversation, people willl hack you a lot less. People who say those sort of things are what I call Skript kiddiots.

[dcongram]

Instant Messengers are a pain. Nearly all have exploits and the 'users' keep violating security by loading them behind the corporate firewalls. MS Instant Messenger is built to use port 1863, but if that is blocked or unconfigured : automatically re-routes to the HTTP proxy port.

[Vorlin]

Hehe, that's the good 'ol "we know port 80's open" workaround. That's how I got ssh to work from inside the firewall. NT admins swearing up and down that I couldn't get out because they blocked ports 20-25. Darn, had to let them down as a friend configured sshd to run on port 80. As for most IMs having exploits, yeah...but the good thing about Trillian is that A: it's not a major company (man, Mirabilis was the best...now I get 10+ icqs a day vaunting porn, thanks AOL...sell those UIN lists), B: they listen to the user community, and C: it authenticates through the usual channels but doesn't use the same bloated code the others does. Worthwhile to check out. Here is the web site.

[protocool]

i 100% agree to that fact. better threw your icq or be doomed!

[Matty_Cross]

There is a good chance that you already had a trojan installed on your computer.. I think that some trojans have the ability to notify an IM user when an infect user comes online.....

Was the person you were playing starcraft with a "friend"?

[Remote_Access_]

Heh, I thought the *nix discussion forms were for talking about *NIX.. There's a form called Misc. Security Descussions but I supppose you either didn't see it or just didn't care.
BTW, do you have a firewall?

Remote_Access_