Within the last 12 hours Microsoft has started blocking all messages that link to YouTube. Messages are not received and the sender gets the dreaded “The following message could not be delivered to all recipients” error.
In the past, Microsoft has taken measures to stop propagation of viruses by blocking messages containing phrases such as gallery.php, download.php, .scr and .pif. I see no virus here.
YouTube now joins the list of blocked sites including eBuddy and MediaFire. eBuddy was supposedly blocked because of advertising messages when starting a new conversation, and MediaFire blocked to try stop distribution of the leaked Windows Live Messenger 9.0.
I’m completely baffled as to why a block would be placed against YouTube, and eagerly await an explanation. Trying to hamper competition like this just seems ridiculous, it’s not like this would go unnoticed, lots of users are complaining on forums already.
Workaround? Try the domain youtube.info instead, or remove the http://www.
Tools claiming to be able to freeze Windows Live ID accounts, preventing access to Hotmail, Messenger, and other MSN/Windows Live services, usually carry a virus or trojan with them. In the cases I’ve seen, targeted accounts do get temporarily frozen, but the person doing the freezing will get unknowingly infected.
One such program gaining a bit of exposure recently (although over 3 years sold) is IceCold ReLoaded, as seen here:
Do not trust hack tools like this, while some may do what they say, it can be a cover to do something else behind your back.
A new virus labelled a variant of the Win32/Spy.VB.LO trojan by NOD32 has been spreading via Windows Live Messenger over the past couple of weeks, one of the messages it typically sends contains the recipients e-mail address, looking something like this:
» rofl @ you, http://improfile.net/members.php?msn=example@example.com
The Web site has been shutdown to stop it from spreading. The DNS is set to loopback (127.0.0.1) and “Closed for Fraud” is in the whois information.
Kelvin has created a tool called impFix to remove the virus, so give it a try if you believe to be infected with this pest.
Last week Adrian posted about a new messenger worm that has now spread to many users. It spreads by sending a message like one of the following to online contacts:
check out these pics of us! http://p1392.pic-myspace.info
check out this pic of you on myspace! p1392.pic-myspace.info
According to the original post, it was using the domain pics-myspace.info, but on that same day pic-myspace.info was registered and the worm started using that instead. The whois information looks valid…?
Some helpful visitors have posted comments on how to remove it, check out SgSiaoKia’s comment and head over to Serena’s site for full instructions.
Just noticed there could be a potential nuisance worm going around MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger. Just like previous ones, once you have opened the URL, you become infected and it spreads the same message to your whole contact list. Avoid messages like this:
check out these pics of us! http://p1392.pics-myspace.info
Do not click those links. There maybe be different variants of the message but they will all contain the same link. Once you click it, you will be prompted to download an exe (at least when I did via Firefox). When run, it will infect your system and spread the message. So be careful, never click anything you don’t know about. More news about this and possible solutions to follow.
Update: The domain name has been removed so the threat has been removed. Quick thinking has prevented a major annoyance Or not! It’s now on a slightly different domain, see comment by Ian below.
Within the last 12 hours Microsoft has started blocking all messages that link to YouTube. Messages are not received and the sender gets the dreaded “The following message could not be delivered to all recipients” error.
