One of the more persistent threats of the year was fake anti-virus, also commonly known as “scareware” or “rogueware.” In this widespread practice, software is inveigled into a victim’s computer system, closely resembling—and in some cases directly impersonating—genuine security solutions. The user receives a warning that their system is infected with some nasty malware and forced to pay for a “full” version of the software to remove the threat. Of course, paying money to the bad guys doesn’t provide any protection. In most cases there’s no real danger, and in many cases they’re actually installing additional malware on the system and taking your credit card information. With this kind of data handed over so freely, cybercrooks can drain your bank account or completely take over your identity.
Clearly the scam is successful for those propagating these rogue products; over half a million fake anti-virus software variants have been encountered. Along with the fear/response trick of the scam itself, numerous methods are used to get malicious software onto victims’ machines. Some are direct methods such as warning pop-ups activated by visiting malicious or compromised webpages, and others methods span to more generic social engineering techniques used to convince recipients of spammed emails to open malicious attachments.
A good first step to combat the fake anti-virus threat is user education, but even informed attempts to fight back are often hindered by unwise activities from legitimate sites and service providers. For example, a genuine campaign run by U.S. Internet Service Provider, Comcast, warned users of suspected botnet infections. However, this real alert was hard for some to distinguish from a fake anti-virus software alert