
Love the quote.
"Every bad guy known to man is on ICQ"
Not sure if that means what that "investigator" implies or whether they're just that limited in their investigations. Come to think of it, I don't really want to know.
AOL's sale of ICQ messaging software to Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies might yet be blocked by US authorities, which fear losing access to transcripts from the criminal fraternity's favoured messaging product. AOL sold ICQ for $187.5m to DST back in April - a pittance compared to the $400m it paid for the company in …
About the same time, as it seemed to be becoming the equivalent of dipping your PC in an electronic sewer. I did know someone around the time that worked for an anti-virus vendor, his job being maintaining a dozen honeypot PCs continually running (amongst others) ICQ, mIRC, LicQ and Talk clients, as it was the "fastest and easiest" way to find out about new viruses and attack mechanisms. Personally, I'm amazed ICQ is still available!
In the olden times before NATting, you could do an "ICQ Chat", which made a direct peer-to-peer connection, and all your keystrokes were sent in real-time. That was ICQ's biggest appeal; and IIRC most messaging would be made peer-to-peer, unless the other person was offline.
Of course, thanks to AOL, most of this was lost; the latest ICQ versions ditched the real-time chat, and it is now nothing more than a glorified MSN/Yahoo IM system.
Which of course, now enables the US government to spy on your messages, which wasn't really that easy to do in the early peer-to-peer ICQ days.
I still use ICQ occasionally, but most of my contacts left ICQ years ago. Sad...
Honestly do these government agencies think we are all that stupid? Obviously they do!
"Ah quick panic everyone into believing the BS hype about the ne'er-do-wells lurking on the internet ready to steal your children and your possessions!"
How many thieves and petty criminals do you think you pass by on the train, the bus or in your car? Probably quiet a few, but even criminals have lives to lead so it's unlikely you will ever be clobbered by one.
Sick of these government agencies trying to induce panic in everyone, especially when technology is involved!