New Computer Virus Masquerades as Antivirus

A latest computer virus masquerades as famous antivirus software in Centennial, Colorado (US) and experts opine that it can cause damage to the hardware and hack system's files. The virus seems to be originating from authentic antivirus programs like Norton and McAfee.

The virus informs the users that their system is suffering from a virus infection and advises them to enter their credit card details to buy an updated version to clean the system. In other words, it is simply a computer virus disguising as authentic software.

Vice President of Centennial-based Accelerated Network Solutions, Greg Cann stated that once the users reveal their credit card details, attackers gain an access to their hard drive and money, as per the news published by thedenverchannel.com on April 14, 2010.

An individual from Centennial, Frank Martin was recently hit by the virus when his wife mistakenly installed the software without knowing that the antivirus solution was bogus.

Cann informed that the antivirus scam can damage the hard drive and leaves the users with just one alternative that is to pay for an updated version. He also stated that any user who has installed the fake antivirus solution has to operate authentic software to get rid of it.

As per the security experts, scareware scams like this are increasing because of the one main reason that they work successfully.

Lately, Francois Paget, security research expert at Security Company McAfee Labs, observed a 660% increase in scareware over the last two years, and a 400% rise in reported cases in the US in the last one year, as per the reports by canberratimes.com.au in the fourth week of April 2010.

Paget claimed in a statement that it has proved to be a rewarding business for hackers.

Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos, Graham Cluley stated that innocent users are simply threatened by fake security alerts, generating money for corrupt hackers, as per the news published by infozine.com on April 13, 2010.

The security firm suggested that users should be more careful to avoid such attacks. It is very important that computer protection systems should be updated.

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