instant messaging

Business users may love their BlackBerry smartphones, but governments in the Middle East are not so keen. Three countries have issued different degrees of bans on the devices' functions. The biggest conflict comes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), ... where officials there accuse the device of breaching local laws on data security. The problem is that messages sent on a BlackBerry are encrypted and immediately sent to servers in Canada for processing and storage. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion is based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The UAE frowns upon such activity because it demands the ... (view more)

In an effort to expedite stolen personal identities and financial records of unsuspecting users, online deviants are using an Instant Messaging component of their attack software, coupled malware. According to RSA Security, the Zeus Trojan informs ... hackers when their desired information has been poached. With Zeus, hackers can act faster in completing their time-sensitive illegal acts, which could lead to even more victims being targeted. Internet security firms are very familiar with the Zeus Trojan, blaming it for an endless trail of online bank account heists. Most believe Zeus is the ... (view more)

Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast mediums, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. People who create electronic spam are called spammers. Geographical Origins of Spam As ... of this writing and according to experts from SophosLabs, 28.4% of global spam comes from the U.S. In second place is South Korea, bringing 5.2% of global spam. Following the list are China (including Hong Kong): 4.9%; Russia: 4.4%; Brazil: 3.7%; France: 3.6%; Germany: 3.4%; Turkey: 3.%; Poland: 2.7%; United Kingdom (specifically Great Britain): 2 ... (view more)

America Online (AOL) has broken its vows of proprietary ownership and will soon integrate open source Jabber protocols into its AIM and ICQ instant messaging services. AOL is currently in the process of testing a new version of AIM, using the Jabber ... platform as a way to make improvements to its service and eliminate potential operating bugs. While the modifications are still in the test phase, supporters of open source software are looking forward to the potential benefits Jabber can provide. (Source: betanews.com ) Although Jabber is relatively well known within technical circles, most ... (view more)

One of the rising technologies right now is Skype, a peer-to-peer telephone network devised by the same entrepreneurs behind the now decrepit Kazaa. But, don't be too alarmed; although peer-to-peer and Kazaa have both become dirty terms in the ... security vocabulary, Skype is a rather safe (and in many cases, cheap) and effective way of reaching friends long distance. However, Skype grows in popularity, so too do the threats, including a recent instant messaging worm that has spread its way to a few unlucky users. The recent issue hitting Skype's instant messaging service isn't much different ... (view more)

Do you use regularly use email to keep in touch your friends and co-workers? I know I do! Well, according to a new study conducted by Parks Associates, that makes us old folks. Less than one-fifth of the 13-17 year olds who took the survey use email ... to communicate with their buddies, whereas 40 percent of adults between 25 and 54 rely on email to contact their friends. One-third of teens indicate that they contact their pals through instant messaging -- a big jump from adults, who number only 11 percent. Family, however, is a different story. There's "still a lot of face-to-face communication ... (view more)

Instant messaging has done for email what email has done for land mail: namely, the waiting time for delivery (and response) has decreased dramatically. With instant messaging, you can type a message to a friend and have it delivered straight to ... their PC within seconds. But like anything else we do online, chatting has some risks associated with it. For one thing, chat clients often suffer from vulnerabilities. Just like any other piece of software, your chat client [software] needs to be updated periodically to ensure you're protected from the latest vulnerabilities that attackers seek to ... (view more)