A worm is spreading through MSN messenger.

Do not accept files from people if they are not accompanied with a proper explanation!
(Really, one may think that such a think does not need to be told to people..)

In my experience it is a .pif file (no extension is shown by Messenger itself) 17KB in size but the file name and size may vary I suppose.

The official MS one: C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
This free from MSN: C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\msnmsgr.exe
C2Media LOP adware: C:\Program Files\Messenger Plus! 3\MsgPlus.exe

I don't use any messenger programs, I uninstalled whatever came with W2K.
Why do people need/use all of the above, plus AIM, ICQ, IRC, Yahoo and whatever?
All they do is cause havoc to your system, and open the doors extremely wide for all sorts of nasties.

In the same context, why install all these searchbars from Google, Yahoo, Grandma's Kitchen, you name it. So why not install Begin2Search and a few more of those nice colourful buttons?, They look really good on a Fisher-Price desktop like XP.
Wake up people, you don't need ANY searchbars, the likes of Google & Co are only 1 click away in your Bookmarks/Favorites!

The only reason I've ever intalled the google toolbar is to check pageranks.

MSN is useful because, like windows, more people seem to use it.

I have to embarrasingly admit though, I almost got hit by the bropia.j worm myself two nights ago. My friends machine, networked to share my machines internet connection, got the "this is soo cute" message, and she clicked it because it came from a friend she trusted. It was a spur of the moment thing. needless to say she was infected, and immedately she sent it to everybody on her contacts list, myself included. I was about 1/2 an inch away from clicking it before I realised what it was, given that it came from my friend, who was sitting just accross the way from me. We often pass links to each other that way.

Luckily I didn't open it, and I told her she was in trouble when my firewall started regularly blocking traffic from her machine to mine.