IM threats jump 15 percent in 2006, says Akonix

More than 400 attacks on instant messenger (IM) platforms were spotted last year, an increase of 15 percent from the year before, according to researchers at Akonix. The total, which marked an annual record, included 41 new attacks in December, according to the San Diego-based firm. Sohana was the most common IM worm seen during December, with five variants, according to Akonix, followed by Blowhen, which had two variants.

In total, 406 IM attacks were recorded during 2006 - 59 more than 2005.

Public IM traffic is expected to climb from 15.7 billion messages a day in 2006 to 55.7 billion daily messages in 2010, according to a recent Radicati Group study.

Experts consistently warned of a steady increase in IM threats during 2006, citing growing popularity - often unbeknownst to IT professionals - of the communications platform in the workplace.