Malware Purveyors Offering Technical Help To Clean Victim’s Computers

According to a Kaspersky Lab study, Black-Hat groups (malware writers, hackers and other Internet crooks) are intensifying their activities by including customer services and technical support for people they aim to victimize. In other words, they are starting to imitate vendors of security software.

State the security investigators, criminal syndicates are monitoring to offer individuals certain services if they've pulled down malware-laden e-mails or viruses. These services are telephone support and live chat to help load as well as unload their malware. But quite often they don't clean the malware, instead, so deceive the end-user that he ends up loading additional malware.

Furthermore, sometimes the syndicates carry out their services so sophisticatedly that they seem as real security services. Because of regular online promotion and loading of scareware that alert about infections, which don't really exist, the syndicates offer an all-time manned switchboard featuring services in multiple languages that pretends to take care of these non-existent infections. A few even talk about making re-imbursements to unsatisfied "clients."

However, with these services, users may actually step into the risky parts of their PCs, all for supposedly removing non-existent malware. It may so happen that they take onto spending money for so-called technical help, whilst a keylogger actually gets installed that steals bank account credentials for subsequent drainage of their funds.

States Kaspersky that digital certificates, utilized for approving updates and software, are becoming more-and-more ineffective in recognizing authentic and unauthentic programs. Computer hackers are capturing certificates as also making counterfeit copies to promote their phony AV programs. Even certificates that are badly faked may escape detection as according to Kapsersky's research, Microsoft Windows only signals good quality certificates and doesn't signal about bad quality certificates.

Hence, Roel Schouwenberg researcher at Kaspersky describes this process of Windows "suboptimal." Secure Channel published this on August 6, 2010.

Anyhow, the situation presently is one where cyber-criminals are moving to new strategies as users become increasingly wary about malware threats. Real security software firms might discover that they're contending with other firms that also know about the malware threats, with frightened computer-users getting trapped into the latter's ruses.

Related article: Malware Authors Turn More Insidious

» SPAMfighter News - 8/14/2010