➟ Sending photos, documents, and links in IM is an
easy and convenient way to share with others. Just
think twice before opening attachments or clicking
links in instant messages. Make sure that you know
the sender, are communicating with that person at the
time, or are expecting the material. Links or attach-
ments sent out of context may indicate that the
sender’s IM has been infected with a virus, and open-
ing the attachments or clicking the links will then
infect you and send the virus to all of the people in
youraddress book. There are many things that are
great to share; computer viruses aren’t.➟ Understand that IM isn’t a totally secure communica-
tion channel. Your conversation will probably never
be snooped on, but for safety’s sake, don’t share sensi-
tive personal information such as passwords, social
security numbers, credit card information, and the
like in IM messages.➟ Be careful about the information you show in your
status bar, where you can leave short messages and
show your mood. Avoid showing emotions to people
you don’t know well. Don’t expose yourself to bur-
glary by saying that you’re headed out of town on a
specific date.➟ Most services allow you to keep your online status
private so that you simply appear to be offline. But of
course, that means your friends don’t know when
you’re online either.➟ You may get an invitation to join someone else’s IM
buddy list, or a request to add someone to your
buddy list. Before adding people to your list or join-
ing other people’s lists, be sure you know who they
are. Many scammers use names that make you feel
comfortable. Once added, they send spim(IM spam)
and malicious links, or they try to gain your trust for
confidence tricks — or flood you with pornography.
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Part II: Using the Internet While Dodging the Risk