Rogue security applications on the increase

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Malware posing as IT security applications are on the rise, according to new research.

A study by anti-virus company Trend Micro found that these rogue security programs (as a percentage of total threats) have increased from two per cent in early 2006 to over 10 per cent in March 2007.

The malicious applications are downloaded onto a victim's computer surreptitiously and warn the user that the computer has a virus infection. In reality no such threat exists or the worm has been installed alongside the rogue application.

According the company, thousands of victims are already succumbed to the ploy which typically costs around £25 to purchase the anti-malware software that doesn't actually work. Once the user discovers that the software is useless and that they have provided their credit card to a fraudulent company, many users cancel their cards, adding to their inconvenience.

"Rogue security programs are clearly on the rise", says George Moore, threat researcher at Trend Micro. "Therefore users must demonstrate caution and always be alert when downloading software."

He said that rogue software is designed to look and feel like legitimate security software that is running in trial mode on the user's PC. The programs repeatedly warn the user that they have been infected using pop-up windows, hijacked browser homepages, hijacked desktop wallpaper, and warnings that pop up from the system tray.

In many cases, the cyber criminals design the warnings to resemble Microsoft Windows alerts. The programs indicate that some form of a virus or spyware infection has been identified and that the only recourse is to purchase software to clean the infection.

Moore said that the validity of the software should be checked against lists of rogue software compiled by independent analysts (such as Spyware Warrior.

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