Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have warned of
the growing trend for malware to display fake security warnings in
an attempt to sell software.
The latest example seen by Sophos experts is Troj/FakeVir-O, a
Trojan horse that displays a fake warning message claiming that
virus activity has been detected on the user's PC.
The FakeVir-O Trojan horse displays a message, encouraging
computer users to visit a website selling software which claims to
protect against spyware. Sophos believes that the Trojan horse has
been written by an affiliate to the software company, and is trying
to generate revenue by driving people to the website.
The message displayed by the Trojan reads as follows:
Your computer is infected!
Critical System Error!
System detected virus activities.
They may cause critical system failure. Please, use antimalware
software to clean and protect your system from parasite programs.
Click here to get all available software.
The message displayed by the Trojan
horse.
"More and more malware is being written that tries to make cash
by preying on users' security fears," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "Many of these attacks don't just
display advertising, they fool people into believing their computer
has a serious security problem when it has nothing of the kind.
People need to be more suspicious of the messages they receive on
their computers, as it could be a hacker trying to scare them out
of their money."
"Furthermore, the websites that users are directed to by malware
can often carry software that pretends to be bona fide, but may
list bogus reviews of its effectiveness at killing off spyware and
viruses, or just be interested in stealing users' credit card
details," continued Cluley. "Legitimate software companies need to
take firm action if they have advertising affiliates who are
breaking the law by installing malware onto innocent users'
computers to generate income."
In April, Sophos reported on Zhijian Chen who was fined almost
$84,000 for marketing a bogus anti-spyware program. A week ago,
hacker Jeanson James Ancheta was sentenced
to 57 months in jail for installing revenue-generating adware
on a zombie network of 400,000 computers.
Sophos recommends companies put in place a consolidated solution to defend against viruses,
spyware and spam, and ensure that it is automatically updated as
new threats emerge.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.