Scareware Distributors Hacking Genuine Websites

Roger Thompson, Chief Research Officer, AVG, has said that a scareware attack of a new breed is rapidly spreading by using a new twist (both scary and dangerous), as reported by Blogs.pcmag on November 18, 2009.

According to the report, the attack appears mundane over the greater part of it. It hacks a genuine Internet site and adds web-links that connect to a certain bogus malware scan, which falsely claims that pornographic pictures have been discovered on the user's PC.

Actually, the porn isn't discovered on the user's PC, rather the phony malware scan downloads it with an objective to scare the user into purchasing the bogus malware cleansing software or a scareware pack named 'Win Spy Protect.'

Thompson remarked that because there were large concerns regarding the way malware infection led to porn pictures depicting minors' exploitation on non-pedophiles' computers, he felt it important to post a movie about the threat, as reported by Theregister on November 19, 2009.

Furthermore, Thompson writes via a blog post that the cyber world is extremely dangerous and therefore everyone must remain cautious, as reported by Thompson.blog.avg on November 19, 2009.

It is evident from the latest incident that propagators of fake antivirus are becoming stealthier day-by-day. During 2010, these propagators are expected to move higher in their efforts, even as they might compromise people's PCs, making their systems inoperable. However, the propagators might be less severe by installing software, which wouldn't exactly be malicious but certainly dubious.

Scareware occupied a top position on the October 2009 malware chart, and according to investigators, a partial reason why threat levels were high is that there prevailed money-making associate software, which promised users benefit from each software program they bought. The investigators also saw new scareware campaigns related to corrupt advertisements and botnets.

Finally, it is reported that hackers have created 260,000 bogus pages on hijacked websites to start distributing scareware that would depend on the manipulation of rankings of search-engine results so that booby-trapped websites may find a significant place within search directories based on hot topics.

Related article: SecureWorks Identifies Bank and Information Stealing Trojan Coreflood

» SPAMfighter News - 12/1/2009