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Hackers Exploiting BRITS Music Awards to Spread Malware

The British music awards given on February 16, 2010 prompting a large number of music lovers to search for detailed information about them on the Web. But it seems cyber criminals particularly hackers are taking advantage of this enthusiasm to reap the maximum possible personal benefits, says the security company 'Webroot.'

By just entering "BRIT Awards 2010" in search engines and clicking 'go,' Web surfers are led to hackers' manipulation. According to Webroot, its team of malware researchers has come across a pair of specific security threats related to fake music download websites and bogus warning messages.

The bogus warnings promote a rogue Security Tool. Simultaneously, they attempt to get users to run its installer by viewing a JavaScripted video. This whole process seems to be a malware scan. Besides, the spurious antivirus scan gives back several bogus results that enable the web-pages download the installer.

Andrew Brandt, Security Researcher at Webroot, states that if the installer is run, the rogueware disables several crucial Windows functions, particularly the task manager and registry editor. But if the user pays to buy the malicious software product, the Windows functions become 'enabled' again, as reported by Ifosecurity on February 17, 2010.

In addition, those behind the bogus warning messages are intensely pushing their web-pages to higher ranks among search results. Accordingly, these pages could be found in the top 5 positions of Google search results.

The Webroot researchers state that these bogus warnings have nothing new in them. They are nearly similar to those that intensely circulated over the last few months.

Another security threat reported by Webroot is fake music download websites. These sites scam visitors with supposedly free downloads in return for paying a registration fee. However, the fee never reaches the BRIT Trust charity that the British trade association of the recording industry runs in the country.

Hence, the security company advises Web surfers to maintain vigilance against this scam. Brandt suggests users running Windows that they should press the combination of Alt-F4 keys.

Related article: Hackers Redirect Windows Live Search to Malicious Sites

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