Michael Gracie

Windows Live Messenger is in an invitation only beta-test - a cute little scenario stolen from the early Gmail days (except that Microsoft can only invite their own users). A few of those invites were subsequently posted on eBay (think Gmail invites again), and I suspect by someone with a vested interest in hyping the whole thing. That hype may now backfire.

Someone is spewing an email touting the “leaked” Live Messenger program, but the accompanying attachment is really a computer zombie-fying trojan that turns off anti-virus software, blocks access to security sites, and starts up spamming and denial-of-service attacks.

Big companies simply do not think about the consequences of their actions, and this trojan is nothing more than a consequence of trying to create some hype using somebody else’s marketing tactics.