My kids want me to install MSN Messenger on their PC which has a
permanent Broadband connection. However some years ago when
I used MSNmessenger my then Hotmail account got hacked and
taken over by someone. Needless to say the Hotmail staff weren't
interested in helping me recover the account and as a result I have
never used it again, in fact I always make sure it is completely removed
(with XPLite) from each of my Windows installs.

But.....the kids are driving me crazy and just wanted to know what are
the likely security risks of having this program installed.

Thanks

Joaquin

Greetings Joaquin,

There have not been any security issues within Messenger in a long, long time and of those,
very few were ever exploited.

Messenger's current security settings do not even let users send executables through the
server through normal file requests. As for having your account data "stolen", Messenger has
used SSL (the same technology used to encrypt your data on the web) as the basis for its
authentication.
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2005 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.

"Joaquin Blanco" <JoaquinBlanco@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5692DA8F-07E4-4D17-BBCC-8E12B9C51BA2@microsoft.com...
> My kids want me to install MSN Messenger on their PC which has a
> permanent Broadband connection. However some years ago when
> I used MSNmessenger my then Hotmail account got hacked and
> taken over by someone. Needless to say the Hotmail staff weren't
> interested in helping me recover the account and as a result I have
> never used it again, in fact I always make sure it is completely removed
> (with XPLite) from each of my Windows installs.
>
> But.....the kids are driving me crazy and just wanted to know what are
> the likely security risks of having this program installed.
>
> Thanks
>
> Joaquin
>
>
>
>