Santa Claus worm hitting messenger users online

Christmas is just a couple of days away and the hackers have decided to make use of this festive occasion. A Santa Claus worm has been discovered in the wild and it is targeting the users of popular messenger applications from MSN, Yahoo, and AOL. It lures the targeted user into downloading a file and run it.

Security firms have named this worm IM.GiftCom.All and it tries to fool the victim into believing that an online buddy has sent them a link to a harmless Santa Claus file. If the victim downloads the file and runs it, he sees an image of the Santa Claus. However, in addition to displaying the image, it also installs a rootkit on their systems.

These rootkits are designed in a way that they are not detected by security applications and can cause considerable damage to the victim’s machine. The worm then targets the other buddies on the victim’s IM applications to replicate itself. This information was released by the maker of security applications for Instant Messengers, IMlogic.

The company has labeled this worm as a “medium” security threat. Art Gilliland, vice president of products for IMlogic said in a statement: “This worm is a medium threat in terms of its distribution, but in terms of the damage it can create, it’s a more severe threat. It’s not a very happy delivery”.

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