‘Antivirus PC 2009’ Infecting Computers Worldwide

Symantec, an online security company, has detected over 250 kinds of phony anti-malware programs during 2009 and has forecasted that 'scareware' or rogue antivirus programs will grow during 2010. A new bogus antivirus has been identified namely 'Antivirus PC 2009,' presently infecting computers all over the world and making the company's forecast appears to be real.

This bogus AV, which is also known as antivirus PC2009, AntivirusPC 2009 or AntivirusPC2009, belongs to the same group of malware as Alpha Antivirus, Antivir, malware Catcher 2009 and Windows Protection Suite.

Just like other malware items from the group, antivirus PC 2009 creeps into end-users' computers using fake updates for video codec, malicious pop-ups or ad banners. These activities are accomplished through the installation of Trojan programs on the potentially victimized systems.

When a user's PC gets loaded with the bogus antivirus, it would experience a bogus scan with the restarting of system. When the scan gets over, antivirus PC 2009 notifies the user through a pop-up message that it has detected several malicious programs on his system. It (the message) also suggests that the user must purchase the antivirus PC 2009 software in order to remove those programs. Here people should be cautious and not make the purchase, as the product is nothing but a scam.

The software also shows alerts about multiple phony security problems and claims that these might occur in case the user ignores making the purchase.

Meanwhile, security researchers' analysis of antivirus PC 2009 reveals that the software's website is registered with Jan Winstrom based in Stockholm (Sweden). But the site's IP address indicates that the malware's origin place is actually Kazakhstan. These totally varied indications demonstrate that online crooks are doing everything possible towards avoiding detection as they carry out their malevolent operations successfully.

Users are recommended that they do an automatic malware-removal operation to wipe out antivirus PC 2009 from their computers. For that, they need to acquire appropriate security software, which will effectively detect and enable them to get rid of AntivirusPC2009 automatically.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 1/20/2010