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Rogue Defragmenter Demands Ransom To Make Computers Error-Free

According to CyberDefender's Research Lab, its security investigators have found a malicious false defragmenter which scares computer-users into paying ransom. PCMag.com published this on October 25, 2010.

Elaborated CyberDefender that although fake anti-virus software, over years, had been troubling unwitting end-users with attacks via the installation of malware on their computers, the new bogus defragmenter was far more bad.

Said the company's researchers that the malicious program crept into the machine via a malevolent Internet site obtained from SEO-corrupted search results. Furthermore, according to them, any Web-surfer using the keyword "election day printable worksheets" became infected with malware. PCMag.com reported this.

Specifically, when using the above keyword, researchers found a contaminated website that tried pulling down the malware, which effectively harmed PCs. A system that's devoid of protection could get contaminated via a plain click on the web-link leading onto the site. Sunbelt Software reported this on 26th October, 2010.

As per the research team at CyberDefender, the latest System Defragmenter poses as optimization software, which looks for memory problems inside the computer's hard drive, apparently fixes them and similarly spots and repairs possible hard disk faults. Once the hunt completes, if the user tries to operate an application on the PC, a warning emerges that there're errors on his hard drive so he must buy the complete version of the program to remove them.

The team further cautioned that the payment web-page also was not secure as it showed a bogus validated 'green colored' address bar. Besides, the moment the user bought the protection software it, which was false, repaired the falsely-created errors. The risk didn't end there since the con artists currently had the credit card particulars of that user.

State the investigators that maintaining an up-to-date anti-virus is the most optimum protection against such malicious software such as the fake defragmenter. Sunbelt Software reported this.

Remarking about the news, the specialists stated that cyber-criminals commonly utilized fake security software for defrauding their victims. Lately another fake security program pretended to be the Microsoft Security Pack, while employing its look and logo for making users believe and buy the rogue software.

Related article: RSA Attendees Responsible for Wireless Vulnerability

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