Interesting Fact
MSN Messenger 1 included only basic features, such as plain text messaging and a simplistic contact list,over the years,they have improved it to what it is now.

Dangers
Online Predators

Tip
Never give out your personal information when chatting online.

Inspirational Use
Able to communcate with people around the world

Case Study
Scott, a Grade 9 student, transferred to a new school halfway through the semester. He had trouble making friends until he discovered the school’s Facebook network. Most of the other students on Facebook responded to his “friend” requests and he soon began to feel more included, and made friends with some of them at school as well.After a while, though, Scott noticed that his friends list was shrinking as people removed him from their friends lists. He was puzzled by this at first until one of his offline friends told him that Colin, a Grade 11 student, had gotten angry at Scott because he had seen Scott talking to Linda, Colin’s ex-girlfriend. Colin had begun to pressure everyone he knew to remove Scott and Linda from their friends lists on Facebook, and to ignore them at school as well.One afternoon in the computer lab, Scott got more and more angry at Colin and his friends. Since he had finished his work for the period, he decided to start a Facebook group called “Why I Hate Colin,” and he invited everyone still on his friends list to join it. It turned out that there were quite a few people at the school who did not like Colin and his friends, and Scott’s group grew quickly. Whenever the message traffic on the group slowed, Scott would try to boost it by posting some shocking accusation about Colin, such as suggesting that he had cheated on Linda or that he had hit her when they were dating (Linda was not involved in the group, and had never said any such thing).Soon other members of the group started to make their own accusations and suggestions about Colin, some even saying that Colin should have water balloons thrown at him when he went up the main stairway. Scott responded to that suggestion, saying rocks should be thrown instead.After a few weeks, one of Colin’s friends discovered the group and reported it to him. Colin told his parents and they decided to report it to the principal and keep him out of school until things had been worked out, as well as to report what Scott had done to the police.

Interesting Fact
MSN Messenger attracts over 330 million active users each month.

Danger
An IM-equipped child can communicate anywhere, with anyone, at any time on the IM network – all without a parent’s knowledge.

Tip
Never arrange to meet a stranger in person you have been in contact with online no matter how long you have been chatting with them unless accompanied by an adult.

Inspirational Use
Inform siblings or friends about local news headlines and stuff like thaty when they are out of the country.

Case Study
Experts warn users to be wary of links sent over
Instant MessengersA spate of instant message worms released over the last few days has some antivirus researchers concerned: With e-mail viruses less effective than before, virus writers, they say, are now turning their attention to the popular — and not very secure — chat tools used by millions.
A worm named Kelvir made the rounds on Sunday, with several variants appearing almost immediately.
Kelvir is tricky, pasting a simple message in Microsoft's MSN Messenger chat tool, such as "lol! See it! You'll like it!" The ploy is effective because it can appear in mid-conversation with another chatter, convincingly suggesting it's really from someone you are talking to.
"This is a fairly big deal," said John Sakoda, the chief technology officer at IMLogic, an instant message security firm. He said more than 10 percent of his firm's 400 clients reported seeing a variant of Kelvir in recent days.
None of the variants will cause a serious outbreak, antivirus firms say, because they involve two steps to infect users — they must see the file name, and then click on a Web site link. Once that Web site is removed from the Internet, the worm no longer operates, and all the Kelvir Web pages have been pulled down.
Still, researchers are worried that virus writers have taken a fancy to IM tools, and expect to see many more worms targeting the tools in the coming months. Already, there have been as many IM worms this year alone as there have been in all the years previous, said About.com antivirus guide Mary Landesman.
"The underlying point is instant message worms are gaining a lot of speed. There is a lot of activity right now," said Craig Schmugar, a virus researcher at McAfee.com. "There is definitely a shift in the attention of at least some virus authors."
"We're seeing people wake up to the fact that IM is everywhere, and virus writers and worm writers are waking up to the fact that it's a powerful means to propagate malicious code," Sakoda said.So far, IM worms haven't risen to the level of a notorious virus like Code Red or LoveBug. But researchers say it's certainly possible -- particularly if virus writers find a way to make the program spread on its own, without requiring a recipient to click on a link. Symantec Corp. has done simulations suggesting entire corporations could become infected in LESS THAN A MINUTE.
"In our annual Internet security threat report, we predicted this would be taking place, a rise in IM-based threats," said Symantec's Alfred Huger.
So far, Landesman said, Microsoft's MSN Messenger has been the most tempting target for virus writers. Of the 50 or so IM worms she's counted since 2001, about 40 have targeted Microsoft products. The others were evenly split between America Online's AIM and Yahoo Messenger. Sakoda said about two-thirds of the worms he's seen target Microsoft's tools. (MSN Messenger is targeted at HOMEUSERS; Windows Messenger at business users.)
"It just means that MSN and Windows Messenger are popular internationally, and most of these worms surface overseas first," Sakoda said.
For now, consumers who use the popular tools should know they are facing increased risks, Landesman said. The best thing to do is be extremely skeptical when clicking on links sent over instant message tools, even if they appear to be from people you know.
"You have to assume that links in IM are bad until proven otherwise," she said.

Interesting Fact
Online chat room for everyone

Danger
File sharing is always a potential gateway for viral infection and an access point for the bad guys to punch a hole in securing your data.

Tip
Best to create and use passwords for online accounts in order to keep them from being victimized

Inspirational Use
Chatting with siblings or friends who are currently overseas

Case Study
David Knight David Knight's life at school has been hell. He was teased, taunted and punched for years. But the final blow was the humiliation he suffered every time he logged onto the internet. Someone had set up an abusive website about him that made life unbearable."Rather than just some people, say 30 in a cafeteria, hearing them all yell insults at you, it's up there for 6 billion people to see. Anyone with a computer can see it," says David. "And you can't get away from it. It doesn't go away when you come home from school. It made me feel even more trapped."He felt so trapped he decided to leave school and finish his final year of studies at home.These days the internet is a crucial part of teenage culture. Kids can't imagine life without it. They run home from school and the first thing they do is log on. They "talk" for hours using instant messaging, bulletin boards and chat-rooms. But the chatter and gossip can spin out of control, slip into degrading abusive attacks.A recent survey found that 14 per cent of young Canadian users had been threatened while using instant messaging; 16 per cent admitted they've posted hateful comments themselves.In David's case, the website about him had been active for several months before a classmate told him about it.
"A kid from school sent me a message on the internet saying, 'Hey Dave, look at this website,'" says David. "I went there and sure enough there's my photo on this website saying 'Welcome to the website that makes fun of Dave Knight' and just pages of hateful comments directed at me and everyone in my family."Whoever created the website asked others to join in, posting lewd, sexual comments and smearing David's reputation."I was accused of being a pedophile. I was accused of using the date rape drug on little boys," says David.Along with the website, there were nasty e-mails too.David: "Here's an e-mail, 'You're gay, don't ever talk again, no one likes you, you're immature and dirty, go wash your face.'"CBC's Joan Leishman: "Why do you think they were picking on you?"David: "I don't know. I honestly don't know. I'm not different from any other kid."
Nancy Knight At the Knight's home near Burlington, Ont., David's mother Nancy says one of the most frustrating aspects of the whole affair was that the bullies who went after her son hid behind the anonymity of the internet."It's a cowardly form of bullying," says Nancy Knight. "It's like being stabbed in the back by somebody (and) you have no way of ever finding out who they are, or defending yourself against the words they say. So it's more damaging than a face-to-face confrontation with somebody who is clearly willing to tell you what he or she things of you."Nancy says the electronic bullying seemed to have a different affect on David than even the verbal attacks and bruises."After this bullying started, he began withdrawing completely, isolating himself from everyone," she says. "I guess it's a matter of not knowing who knows about you sort of makes you feel you don't want to know anyone."
Grade 8 students at Deer Park Public School Most adults don't understand how damaging cyber-abuse is. But a group of Grade 8 students at Deer Park Public School in Toronto says it causes deep emotional wounds.

Interesting Fact
MSN is the second largest service provider in the United States

Danger
You cannot guarantee that the person on the other end of the communication is who they say they are, not even with video as that can be redirected. There are also voice enhancing and filtering programs that will allow you to sound like just about anyone you want to.

Tip
Parents ought to educate youth on the potential risks in cyberspace.

Insprational Use
We can communicate with friends easily.

Case Study
Two adolescent girls have been forced to leave one of Sydney's elite private schools because of cyber-bullying.
The girls were taken out of Ascham School after they published material on the social networking website, My Space, containing personal and possibly defamatory information about their classmates.
The posting included information on the girls' alleged sexual proclivities, drinking, drug use and relationships.
A parent of one the girls says the girl was horrified when strange boys began approaching her in public.
Bullying worst
The MySpace posting shows adolescent girls at their bullying worst:
"Everyone thought she was sweet nice girl who was never mean. She actually is a bitch and really mean about some people. She also sucks up to people."
"Everyone says they hate her and say she is really annoying."
"The biggest try-hard in Year 9, everyone apparently hates her."
"She became cool in term 4 Year 8 and became really popular, that is all changing now. People are starting to not like her very much and getting annoyed at her."
In more than 2,500 words, the post goes over the behaviour and relationships of 31 Ascham Girls, including the two who wrote it.
It was on the MySpace website for at least four days and possibly several weeks until it was taken down last Thursday.
Some of the details go far beyond school-ground teasing.
One of the authors boasts about making a fellow student's life hell by getting everyone to hate her.
Some of the girls had rumours about their sexual behaviour as well as their drug taking and alcohol habits made public.
It accuses one girl of bestowing sexual favours to multiple boys on the same day.

Interesting Fact
MSN Messenger uses a proprietary protocol, and custom filters (also against instant messaging spam) as well as secure messaging.

Danger
You cannot secure a clear text communication which is what Instant Messaging sends out.

Tip
Encourage more education in the area of legal and illegal online activities, through the provision of informative pamphlets or handbooks written for youth.

Inspirational Use
Teenagers should manage their Internet Usage.Equip them with good time management skills.

Case Study
Cyber Crooks Sending Fake Messages to MSN Users
As per a recent security news, users of MSN Messenger (also known as Windows Live Messenger) are increasingly getting disturbing spam Instant Messaging (IM) from buddies and friends.It has been found that people who send this message sign in to forward the chat request but instantly log out after sending the message, disappointing situation for a message recipient. While some users get IM during chat, others receive it when they are offline.
Generally, a user gets a URL (link location) to click on sometimes with a message and sometimes without a message. If a user follows the link, he is diverted to a phishing website that could be highly malicious and could contain exploit. Possibility of infection to MSN messenger with bot, virus, spyware, Trojan, keylogger, worm etc also increases substantially.The analysis of fake IM by security experts has revealed that it is a technique to steal username and password of the message recipient.