Fake security software in millions of PC's

[Polarman]

Original article:

http://www.reuters.com/article/tech...20091019?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tens of millions of U.S. computers are loaded with scam security software that their owners may have paid for but which only makes the machines more vulnerable, according to a new Symantec report on cybercrime.
Cyberthieves are increasingly planting fake security alerts that pop up when computer users access a legitimate website. The "alert" warns them of a virus and offers security software, sometimes for free and sometimes for a fee.

"Lots of times, in fact they're a conduit for attackers to take over your machine," said Vincent Weafer, Symantec's vice president for security response.

"They'll take your credit card information, any personal information you've entered there and they've got your machine," he said, referring to some rogue software's ability to rope a users' machine into a botnet, a network of machines taken over to send spam or worse.

Symantec found 250 varieties of scam security software with legitimate sounding names like Antivirus 2010 and SpywareGuard 2008, and about 43 million attempted downloads in one year but did not know how many of the attempted downloads succeeded, said Weafer.

"In terms of the number of people who potentially have this in their machines, it's tens of millions," Weafer said.

It was also impossible to tell how much cyberthieves made off with but "affiliates" acting as middlemen to convince people to download the software were believed to earn between 1 cent per download and 55 cents.

TrafficConverter.biz, which has been shut down, had boasted that its top affiliates earned as much as $332,000 a month for selling scam security software, according to Weafer.

"What surprised us was how much these guys had tied into the whole affiliated model," Weafer said. "It was more refined than we anticipated."

I'm not suprised at all. There's a lot of people out there that don't have a clue on how to work with a computer. Most have internet access and don't know how to properly do some research before making a purchase. :shadedshu

 

[Black Panther]

Yikes, your post was a reminder... thanks!

My mum's Free Avast just expired... and she's getting pop-ups to pay for her subscription

Tomorrow I'll go to her place and check it out.

 

[subhendu]

nice post...
@ black panther u can find NIS 2010 90 days version from norton site

 

[niko084]

This is REALLY old news...

To add to it, there is no antivirus that will keep up with these releases, the minute they catch one revision, they re-write it...

 

[Steevo]

I use avast to ban the redirect sites, open DNS to block them, and keep a lockdown on poups.

 

[AsRock]

Yikes, your post was a reminder... thanks!

My mum's Free Avast just expired... and she's getting pop-ups to pay for her subscription

Tomorrow I'll go to her place and check it out.

Sounds like the 90 days has ran out or the 1 year registration has ran out.

 

[joinmeindeath417]

This is one of the biggest reasons we get so many pc's come to the shop i work at haha, and a lot of dumb asses actually pay for the software.

Than they have to pay us to get ride of the demons.

Dumb asses i am sorry there are some funny names for this junk.