Rogue applications

AV2009They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, if that is the case then the cyber-criminals are showering us with it. Today, we issued a report into rogue security software. The drumbeat to this year, has been the prevalence of scareware, fake security alerts that trick users into downloading rogue security products. These provide no security at all, their purpose is to simply extort money from the unfortunate user. Worse than that, once you have handed over your hard earned cash, they then have your credit/debit card details that they can then make additional money from. You can see what one of these rogue security products looks and how the scam works in this video, created by Symantec security response. To date we have found over 250 different types of rogue security products, blocking some 43 million attempted installations.

The prevalence of these rogue products has been driven, in no small part, by a multi-level marketing and distribution model. The affiliate network mechanism, that fuelled the growth in adware and spyware , a few years back, has been dusted down and reused to distribute rogue security products. Affiliates, can earn up to 30-40 pence per installation and we have evidence that, the top affiliates, could earn over £800k per annum simply by helping to distribute this stuff.

October 19, 2009 | Filed Under Announcements, Security 

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