Scareware Takes on Garb of Microsoft Update

According to Sophos the security company, a scareware spuriously appearing to be Microsoft Update is targeting Windows users who surf through Firefox, thus published InfoWorld in news on June 9, 2011.

Consequently, it seems online-crooks are getting more-and-more dexterous at designing malicious software for fooling even those users who're moderately tech-savvy, while abusing information within the user-strings in end-users' Web-browsers as also appropriating the brand names, designs and logos of well-established businesses.

Reportedly, the said scareware dupes Windows computers having Mozilla Firefox running such that the user unwittingly installs the malware. To begin, the scareware pops up an alert dialog box that prompts to load an important update supposedly from Windows MSRT (Malicious Software Removal Tool), while the dialog box inevitably looks like an authentic Windows Update dialog box.

However, computer-users, who believe the alert as also click the button for getting the important security update, merely encounter malware that contaminates their PCs. Says Sophos, cyber-crooks are seeking more-and-more convincing methods for getting consumers to take down bogus AV and also imitating Microsoft security software in the most recent ruse of theirs.

The company further states that the perpetrators of rogue anti-virus keep on modifying their socially-engineered assaults to suitably appear increasingly convincing to end-users as also presumably more effective against them. PCPro published this on June 9, 2011.

Significantly, there's a noticeable tell-tale of the scareware, which suggests that it's false i.e. it prompts users for executing a Windows Update through Firefox although real Windows Update gets introduced solely through Internet Explorer.

And just like spammers who correct the language in their e-mails as well as utilize the right CSS and imagery, the criminals trading scareware too are becoming increasingly specialized. Says Senior Security Advisor Chester Wisniewski of Sophos, the attackers utilize very good graphics as also information from the security company's UserAgent strings, which the browser reportedly dispatches for tailoring the malware experience of end-users. Inquirer published this on June 9, 2011.

Importantly, the scareware in discussion has the same description as that by Wisniewski. Moreover, Sophos lately reported of a likewise scareware, which found out if an end-user ran IE or Firefox.

Related article: SecureWorks Identifies Bank and Information Stealing Trojan Coreflood

» SPAMfighter News - 17-06-2011

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