AOL instant messenger chat service can be started through its protocol called AIM. The protocol is mainly used by third party AIM clients ,as well as, by most of the AOL produced versions of AIM. Some of the security weaknesses may be however associated with AIM and as a result it allows for creation of exploits. This can become one of the cause of performance of malicious acts on some of the users’ computers. However, in most cases these acts are harmless but sometimes, they may also lead to harvesting of IP addresses and transfer of some of the viruses. These can directly result because of social networking that is, simply by sending instant messages. The AIM client for iPhone and iPod Touch is capable of supporting two types of accounts. These accounts include standard AIM account as well as the MobileMe account.
OSCAR is actually the standard protocol which is generally used by the AIM clients for communication purposes.TOC, a simpler protocol was also created by AOL which however was devoid of some of the features of OSCAR. However, TOC can be successfully used by the clients who just need to use only chat as the prime function through this service. The specifications of TOC/TOC2 were directly made available by the AOL. OSCAR, being a closed protocol, however involves some sort of reverse engineering.
