Ron Schenone

Google Reports That Fake Anti-Virus Products Are On The Rise

Posted by on Apr 15, 2010 | 4 Comments

In a recent report, Google cites that the incidence of fake anti-virus products [Fake AV] are on the rise. In its report, Google states that such attacks do not require any user intervention and that the malicious code is installed automatically without the user even being aware of it. I have personally seen this types of attacks on some of my clients’ computer systems, and these can usually be removed by a good A/V cleaner or scrubber.

The report from Google also states:

Visiting a malicious or compromised Web site — or sometimes even viewing a malicious ad — can produce a screen looking something like the following:

CLICK TO ENLARGE

I have found both Malwarebytes and Spyware Doctor with anti-virus to be effective.

Malwarebytes can be found here

Spyware Doctor can be found on the Google Pack site

Source

  • http://www.goretsky.com/ Aryeh Goretsky

    Hello,

    Perhaps if Google did a better job of preventing advertisements using the names of antivirus programs and companies as keyword the threat woudl be lower.

    Regards,

    Aryeh Goretsky

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  • Rico

    I have had that happen to me already (drive-by downloading by malicious ads). Megaupload sharing site and some torrent sites have placed ads that drive-by download Vista Internet Security 2010. What really makes it bad is that it edits the registry so that it thinks the extension .exe is a file to be opened up by Vista Internet Security 2010. Some removal tools leave that registry entry alone, making any .exe file show the “Open with…” box. I am always careful of what and when I choose to download of of these sites.
    P.S. This kind of “application” is called a Rogue Security Program.

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