New Scareware Exploits Authenticity Of Virus Total

Researchers at security firm "Sunbelt" caution that a new variant of scareware is trying to abuse the brand awareness and reputation of VirusTotal (VT), an online file scanning service. This rouge application is identified by over half the engines currently supported by VT. The rogue application is named Virus Total 2010 or VirusTotal 2010.

According to security researchers, 'Virus Total 2010' is a new version of fake anti-virus protection software that exploits users who cannot differentiate between genuine and fake virus and spyware protection software.

Due to the presence of fake Virus Total 2010, the user system will display numerous pop-ups along with bogus system scans to deceive users into believing that malware like computer viruses and computer trojans exist in their system.

The security experts noted that this technique could convince the users to purchase the anti-virus Total 2010 key. However, that software was fake and the users would only waste their money on a fake 'Virus Total 2010'.

The security experts highlighted that due to the maliciousness linked with this fake anti-virus software, 'Virus Total 2010' should be immediately uninstalled from the computer as the presence of this virus could make Internet browsing quite difficult.

Commenting on the issue, Sunbelt security researchers wrote on the company's blogging website that the masterminds behind this new rouge software had chosen the name of Virus Total to make their malicious creation look authentic, as reported by softpedia on August 5, 2010.

The security researchers further noted that the practice of exploiting brand names of security services or vendors was not new. In February 2010, the name of 'VirusTotal' was exploited by cybercriminals who attempted to infect computers with scareware in a spam campaign, that was identified by the security researchers team of "Sophos".

Thus, to avoid being exploited by such scareware scams, the security experts suggest users to install effecient Internet security software solutions.

Related article: New Zealand Releases Code To Reduce Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 8/17/2010