The MSN messenger worm --Bropia. G

I heart a news from my friend in Taiwan recently, that there is a wide spread MSN messenger worm called Bropia. G ( the picture is shown below); and many of her firends had been struggling with it. The annoying worm tries to infect from one computer to other when people use the MSN to chat with othes. As the MSN is a popular copmmunication medium, the speed of the infection is very broad and quick. For example, Trend Micro statistic shows that about 87.9% of infection is from Asia including 60.8% from Taiwan; however, more and more people also receive the worm in the U.S. Bropia can change the status of the MSN users such as "online to away." Be cause of this, many people lose connection with others. When the person A chats with the person B, B may receive a file called "new_webcam pif (185 KB)" from A. If the person B carelessly opens the file, Bropia will display the sexy picture below to bother the users and change their ststus (Johnstone, 2005).




While Bropia does not seriously affect computer users and destroy the computer program, the online security should also be considered. According to the lecture from the week 9, computer users can use some programs such as McAffee's VirusInfo Centre, which provides virus scanning, personal firewall plus, and server side sacnning to fight against virus. However, to have a higher security to chat online, people should be cautious not opening a strange file and giving others the personal information.


Reference

Johnstone, B. (2005). Bropia. G - MSN Users Should Remain Vigilant. Retrieved March, 10, 2005. from http://msmvps.com/trafton/archive/2005/02/04/34971.aspx

Smith, R. (March, 8, 2005). Week 9: Privacy. Presented at a CMNS 253 lecture at Simon Fraser University