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Websense - Rogue Antivirus Promises to Give Money for Preserving Greenery

Authors of a rogue antivirus have devised yet another clever ploy, this time pretending to be more environment friendly. Whenever a user buys bogus AV, a charity would be extended for the cause of environment, said Websense Security Labs.

Hence, people who fall to the scam are made to believe that when a sale takes place, $2 of the earnings would be allotted for restoring Amazon's green forests. However, malware spreads via Zlob or Virtumundo trojans embedded in Internet sites that potential victims browse unwarily after being enticed by socially-engineered spam.

When the malware infects the computer, pop-up messages appear, posing as a solution for treating fake security problems.

Mary Grace Timcang, Security Analyst at Websense, said that different from certain rogue AV scams, which presented free trial editions, the latest scam mandated users to use a credit card for purchasing the program, as reported by SCMagazine on September 3, 2009. Timcang added that the website looked genuine, decorated with fake testimonials and convincing graphics.

Carl Leonard, Security Research Manager, Websense (EMEA), said that many people believed that the next natural step was to bring about green lifestyle transformations; switch to recycling paper and eco-friendly illumination bulbs; and use green software, as reported by CIOL on September 4, 2009.

Leonard further said that the green technology industry was a huge business and malware writers tried to exploit it. This was not only an effective tactic to load malware on computers but also made netizens pay for the AV and freely gave their credit card information. Leonard added that sadly the only eco-friendly issue regarding the tactic was the discontented feeling among the unwary targets.

Meanwhile, Stephan Chenette, Security Research Manager, Websense Security Labs, stated that for the attackers, rogue antivirus was nearly the most accurate solution to spread malware, as reported by SCMagazine.

Chenette continued that it frightened end-users to know that their computers had been infected, though not really. Subsequently, it loaded a program that actually did the infection for which the victim made a payment.

Related article: Websense Discovered Malicious Social Networking Spam Campaign

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