I have alerted my readers to the epidemic of rogue antivirus and rogue anti-spyware programs that are plaguing the Internet in several prior articles. These programs are that claim to remove infections, but actually are infections..
(please see "It Said I Was Infected")
Usually, folks who call me for aid with these have visited a website which has been "poisoned" by a cyber-criminal, and a popup window opened saying "Warning! A virus has been detected on this machine! Click here to clean virus-sounding-name from your machine!"
(Or, perhaps.. an "adult" website which told them they needed a certain 'codec' to see the movie...ahem.)
But antivirus and anti-spyware are not the only rogues, and fake popup warnings are not the only method of attack--
An e-mail slipped through my filters today:
From: PC Solutions, Subject: Have Your PC Running Like New. 
As you can see, it is a "Registry Optimizer" that sounds like it does wonderful things...
..and here's what a quick Google search revealed.
Not good. (Further exploration shows it contains a trojan)
Folks, I am not going to debate whether legitimate registry cleaners do or do not really enhance your machine, and I don't want you to think that all 'free scans' are evil.
Save that for another day.
What I do want you to think about is this:
* Someone went to an awful lot of time and effort to make this "product" appear legit.
* It came (uninvited) in the mail.
* This type of malware is very difficult to remove.
* It is a lot easier to sift the good from the bad with the colored "doughnuts" of the WOT toolbar (red="bad").
I cannot say it enough-- the Internet is a very dangerous and insecure place, and there's predators lurking there whose full-time job it is to fleece the unwary.
Today's free link(s): Two today. First, if you didn't click on my article (above) "It Said I Was Infected", you're missing out on a video which demonstrates how these rogues work.
And second, for you, and your friends and family, Bill Mullins has a primer on how to be wary on the Internet, "Internet And System Security--Common Sense Tips"
Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.
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