Fake online anti-virus bug computer users
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 25 November 2009, 14:46 IST   |    3 Comments
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Fake online anti-virus bug computer users
Kolkata: For users seeking to quarantine their computers by using anti-virus software made available online, fake anti-virus (FAV) is a growing, invisible threat. While it's much easier to identify a malicious software code received through a spam mail, or other suspicious attachments, FAVs are making it difficult for users to escape from them, because such 'pop ups' usually offer to remove viruses from an 'infected' computer. "Programmers will create websites with almost any major event like Obama's swearing in, Michael Jackson's death, major terrorist attacks, or any natural phenomenon including solar eclipse," said Abhinav Karnwal, Product Marketing Manager at Trend Micro an anti-virus solutions provider. "They will even make up events like the meteor shower that was a hoax and ensure their websites figure within the first two pages of a search result. When one clicks on any of these links he may be forced to download these FAVs," he added. Experts tracking cyber crime say these FAVs can cost anywhere between 500 and 6,000, with malicious code writers making around $10,000 on a good day, reports Economic Times. According to computer security firm PandaLabs, only 1,000 samples of FAVs were reported during the first quarter of last year. However, by the second quarter of this year, such instances have reached 3,74,000. Malware or malicious software has been growing exponentially during the past few years. Last year, over 1.5 million attacks were detected by security solutions firm McAfee, and the number has already hit 1.2 million during the first half ending June this year.

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