scareware

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Spooky Halloween - scareware or crimeware?

Who's to be scared?Which platforms are affected by the things that you mentioned Conficker and rogue AV scareware? Please let us know the whole picture so it is clear who needs to be concerned about this and who doesn't!Thank you in advance.I cosign n/t.While you're...

Tags: Crimeware, Scareware

Discussion threads 2009-10-29

Rogue security programs are 'ongoing threat'

Symantec's report on rogue security software noted that 250 rogue security programs launched some 43 million attempts to prompt user installation between July 2008 and June 2009. Rogue security software, also dubbed scareware, is an "ongoing threat" that is impacting largely users from English-speaking markets, according to findings from...

Tags: Symantec Corp., Rogue Security Program, Security Program, Security Software, security, scareware, Symantec, Vivian Yeo ZDNet Asia

News items 2009-10-20

Scareware scammers hijack Twitter trending topics

Just one more reason not to use these lame social networking sites. nt...RE: Scareware scammers hijack Twitter trending topicsThese scum seem to have a fascination with JayZ. I've had two "people" follow me just today, and in both cases they were "listening to JayZ" blah-blah-blah. Didn't take very long to...

Tags: Social networking, Scareware, N/T, Twitter Inc.

Discussion threads 2009-09-23

The ultimate guide to scareware protection

Taking into consideration the fact that 99% of ongoing scareware campaigns rely on "visual social engineering", this gallery presents some of the most popular templates used by cybercrime gangs in an attempt to trick the end user into installing the fake security software. by Dancho Danchev

Tags: Security, Scareware, Fake Security Software, Rogueware, Cybercrime, Screenshots, Photos, Dancho Danchev

Image galleries 2009-09-13

Scareware goes Green

Was Al Gorethe first to fall for this?Looks like the malware people are getting smarter......in their targeting of people who as a group are more likely to fall for this kind of nonsense.RE: Scareware goes GreenI am sure that these scam artists are laughing at the stupidity of those fools...

Tags: Scareware, climate change, global warming, oil industry

Discussion threads 2009-09-04

Scareware goes Green

Malicious pseudo-environmentalists have come up with a new social engineering tactic aiming to improve the profit margins of their fake antivirus software releases - by promising to donate $2 from every purchase for saving the Amazonian green forests. The new scareware template branded as "Green-AV Premier Edition...

Tags: Antivirus, Social Engineering, Scareware, Green-AV, Viruses And Worms, Security, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-09-03

Scareware pops-up at FoxNews

Scareware pops-up at FoxNewsFox News IS scareware.ntntGotta Love it ....According to the SCAREWARE site that loaded from Fox News, my LINUX box has a C and a D drive and I am heavily infected with Win32 Virus ....I am laffing so hard, I now have tears ... what smucks!!!!At least...

Tags: Web site development, Web technology, Viruses and worms, SECURITY, Palin, Messiah44, Scareware, Web site, Faux News, FoxNews

Discussion threads 2009-04-15

Scareware meets ransomware: "Buy our fake product and we'll decrypt the files"

Scareware meets ransomware: "Buy our fake product and we'll decrypt the files"I imagine this is targeted ONLY to Windows platforms :-)As soon as I read this I looked over at my wife and said "God I'm glad we left Windows!" The more I read of this crap the happier I...

Tags: Spyware, adware & malware, Cyberthreats, Microsoft Windows, Viruses and worms, Scareware, RICO, MasterCard International, Visa Inc., malware, security

Discussion threads 2009-03-26

Additional Resources

News to know: Spooky scareware; Ubuntu; Apple; Motorola

Here are today’s notable headlines: Scary software, orange gadgets for Halloween, Microsoft and Ubuntu. by Larry Dignan

Tags: Ubuntu, Apple Inc., Motorola Inc., Tools & Techniques, Management, Larry Dignan

Blog posts 2009-10-30

Phishing experiment sneaks through all anti-spam filters

A recently conducted ethical phishing New study details the dynamics of successful phishing experiment impersonating LinkedIn by mailing invitations coming from Bill Gates, has achieved a 100% success rate in bypassing the anti-spam filters it was tested against. The experiment emphasizes on how small-scale spear phishing campaigns...

Tags: Anti-spam, LinkedIn, E-mail, Phishing, Cyberthreats, Spam, Viruses And Worms, Security, Spam And Phishing, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-10-29

Spooky Halloween - scareware or crimeware?

With all the "spooky" cybercrime trends taking place on a monthly basis, such as the death of CAPTCHA, the suspicious idleness of the Conficker botnet, the clear presence of government-tolerated and upcoming government-sponsored botnets, the inevitable migration from using malicious infrastructure to entirely relying on legitimate one, followed by the...

Tags: Search Engine Optimization, Campaign, Cybercriminal, Search, Marketing Research, Strategy, Security, Marketing, Management, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-10-29

New LoroBot ransomware encrypts files, demands $100 for decryption

Researchers from CA have intercepted a new ransomware variant encrypting popular file extensions (.zip; .rar; .pdf; .rtf; .txt; .jpg; .jpeg; .waw; .mp3; .db; .xls; .docx; .xlsx; .doc) and demanding a $100 for the decryption software. According to the message which replaces the desktop's background upon execution, the...

Tags: Decryption, SMS, Text Messaging/SMS/MMS, Telephony, Cellular Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Online Communications, Networking, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-10-27

Gawker Media tricked into featuring malicious Suzuki ads

A group of cybercriminals have successfully managed to trick Gawker's ad sales team into featuring malicious ads serving Adobe exploits (CVE-2008-2992; CVE-2009-0927) and scareware, by impersonating a legitimate ad agency inquiring about an upcoming Suzuki ad campaign. According to Gawker Media, the malware distributors were one of...

Tags: Advertisement, Gawker Media, Suzuki, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-10-27

Malware ads served from Gizmodo

Popular gadget blog Gizmodo has acknowledged falling victim to an "elaborate scam" that served malicious ads for scareware (fake anti-virus) to its readers. by Ryan Naraine

Tags: Advertisement, Malware, Gizmodo, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Viruses And Worms, Security, Ryan Naraine

Blog posts 2009-10-27

News to know: Apple; Alex; Microhoo; Droid; FCC

Here are today's notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily. For continuous updates see BNET's around-the-Web tech coverage. Sam Diaz: Another strong quarter for Apple; credit strong iPhone, Mac sales Jason D. O'Grady: Apple announces most profitable...

Tags: FCC, Google Inc., Larry Dignan, Advertisement, Information Technology, Dana Blankenhorn, Mary Jo Foley, Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Sam Diaz, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, E-books, Federal Government, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Operating Systems, Software, Personal Technology, Government, Web Services, Enterprise Software

Blog posts 2009-10-20

Fake 'Conficker.B Infection Alert' spam campaign drops scareware

Not much they can do.Not much they can do.Email was never designed for security, and it's HARD getting everybody on the same page with a solution that works, because basically every solution we know of pretty much requires everybody to use it. But, unfortunately, it's difficult convincing people running email...

Tags: Internet service providers (ISPs), Cyberthreats, Spam, Microsoft Corp., Conficker.B Infection Alert, spam campaign, sample message, Internet Service Provider, e-mail, Microsoft Windows

Discussion threads 2009-10-19

Fake 'Conficker.B Infection Alert' spam campaign drops scareware

An ongoing spam campaign is once again attempting to impersonate Microsoft's security team -- the same campaign was first seen in April -- by mass mailing Conficker.B Infection Alerts (install.zip), which upon execution drop a sample of the Antivirus Pro 2010 scareware. Whereas the theme remains the...

Tags: Infection, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Internet, Spyware, Spyware, Adware & Malware, E-mail, Security, Viruses And Worms, Operating Systems, Software, Online Communications, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-10-19

New Koobface campaign spoofs Adobe's Flash updater

Earlier this week, the botnet masters behind the most efficient social engineering driven botnet, Koobface, launched a new campaign currently spreading across Facebook with a new template spoofing Adobe's Flash updater embedded within a fake Youtube page. The malware campaign is relying on compromised legitimate web sites,...

Tags: Adobe Systems Inc., CAPTCHA, YouTube Inc., Social Engineering, Worm, Gang, Koobface, 0x3E8/youtube/console=yes/, Cyberthreats, Viruses And Worms, Security, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-10-14

Click fraud facilitating Bahama botnet steals ad revenue from Google

Originally exposed as a botnet redirecting and monetizing hijacked traffic to over 200,000 parked domains primarily located in the Bahamas, researchers from ClickForensics have recently found evidence on active DNS hijacking of Google properties allowing cybercriminals to steal revenue from Google by pulling search results and displaying them on a...

Tags: Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-10-08

Malware affiliate bounty: Infect a Mac, earn 43 cents

It's just what Apple deserves.Apple has long implied that its OS and software are inherently immune to attack. It's about time it and Mac owners were brought up short.It has begun...Now to see how long it will take before the Mac is as beset by malware as Windows.RE: Malware affiliate...

Tags: Spyware, adware & malware, Cyberthreats, Desktops, Viruses and worms, bounty, Apple Macintosh, malware, Microsoft Windows, security

Discussion threads 2009-09-25