Hackers put IM in their sights
Source: ZDNet
A hacker named Methodic spotted a hole in America Online's instant messaging system, so he penned a program to crash the chat program of any AOL "buddy" he targeted.
Luckily, Methodic wasn't a malicious hacker, and he settled for just proving a point: Instant messaging systems used by millions around the world are vulnerable to the same types of lightning attacks spread by e-mail causing billions of dollars in damages.
Methodic, also known as Tony Lambiris, says AOL patched up its system a week later, and the hole was gone, forever.
AOL said it spends heavily on security and fixed the problem. "It could have potentially been annoying but the user's password and account remained secure and we quickly resolved the issue when it was discovered," Andrew Weinstein, a spokesman for AOL, said.
That's not the point, according to Lambiris
