Someone's going on Santa's naughty list

A new virus is taking advantage of the Christmas-time custom of sending cards and joke attachments to spread itself among users of instant messenger software.

The IM.GiftCom.All, or Santa Claus worm presents itself as a harmless image of Santa Claus and appears to be sent from someone known to the recipient. If victims click the file a worm is loaded on to their computer. The worm then sends the same message to everybody on that person's address list.

The virus is part of a growing pattern whereby instant messaging programme users are being targeted by the writers of malware. The Santa Claus virus is just the latest instant messaging virus to be making the rounds, targeting the chat programmes provided by AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo. The worm was identified by IMLogic, which develops enterprise instant messaging software.

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