January 9th, 2008
IM attacks: 45% on MSN Messenger, 20% on Yahoo! IM, 19% on AIM
faceTime says 19% of threats were reported on the AOL Instant Messenger network, 45% on MSN Messenger, 20% on Yahoo! Instant Messenger and 15% on all other IM networks including Jabber-based IM private networks. Attacks on these private networks have more than doubled in share since 2003, rising from seven% of all IM attacks to 15% in 2007. In 2007 researchers saw a shift in the non-IM vectors used to distribute viruses, malware and spyware. Most notable is the rise in IRC-distributed attacks: in 2006, IRC accounted for 58% of attacks, rising to 72% by year-end 2007.
