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Thread: Fake Security Software

  1. #1
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Fake Security Software

    Well, the Empire Strikes Back, it would seem?

    A crowd of the regular AV/AM boys have gotten together and started to address the issue of "scareware" by producing a "whitelist"

    Please look here:

    http://www.techworld.com/security/ne...&NewsID=119239

    Not all the more obscure stuff will be included, but I think I am OK in saying that the free tools that regular AO contributors recommend are pretty safe, as we have tested them ourselves first

    In general, if it is free it won't be "scareware", because that isn't their business model............but "free" doesn't mean "safe" or "effective"........

    EDIT:

    Sorry folks, I forgot to post the link to the real site, as the newslink will probably die:

    http://www.ccssforum.org/software-vendors.php
    Last edited by nihil; July 16th, 2009 at 03:23 PM.

  2. #2
    AO Curmudgeon rcgreen's Avatar
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    Nov 2001
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    2,716
    A timely topic, for me anyway. Fake antivirus, fake antispyware
    and so forth seems to be more and more common. I just had to remove
    one from my daughter's computer. It was Personal Antivirus.

    Forums I went to said to get Malwarebytes to fix it.
    Sure enough, I couldn't get to the Malwarebytes site, but
    was consistently redirected. I was able to download the tool on another
    computer, and solve the problem. These things are agressive!
    How do most non-tech people cope? I guess they are abandoning
    their PCs and getting iPhones?
    I came in to the world with nothing. I still have most of it.

  3. #3
    Gonzo District BOFH westin's Avatar
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    I guess they are abandoning their PCs and getting iPhones?
    No... not just iPhones... they are getting Macs. Because it is impossible to get infected on a Mac... Their security is so INVINCIBLE! That, and they just work. lol

    Really though, most normal people I know bring the system to me to have it removed.

    I have played around with several of these on a VM that I have set up just for infections. Some of them are pretty clever. You can usually bypass the blocks with a proxy, then download the file. Sometimes you even have to rename the MBAM executable to get it to run. Fun stuff eh?
    \"Those of us that had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts, we wanted strong drink.\"

    -HST

  4. #4

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