Malicious computer programs designed to trick a user into buying and downloading unnecessary and potentially dangerous software, such as fake antivirus protection.
another worrying finding of the report is the huge increase in scareware
Example sentencesExamples
Visitors to the New York Times website who were served the poisoned advert saw pop-up messages warning them that their computer had been infected, and urging them to install scareware.
Symantec also believes some people distributing the scareware could be earning more than a million dollars each year.
The firm has identified more than 250 versions of this software, known as "scareware".
Rogue/fake applications (scareware) such as this have been around for years on Windows.
On average, Sophos identifies five new scareware websites every day, with the figure peaking at over 20 per day on occasion.
In fact, McAfee itself has recently reported that cybercriminals made profits of $300 million globally from scamming consumers with scareware.
Symantec said that scareware vendors go to great lengths to initimidate and trick web users in to purchasing this malicious software.
This past weekend, even the New York Times was duped into running a scareware ad on their site.
The people behind the adverts encourage Apple Macintosh users to download a piece of scareware called MacSweeper.
Sophos picked up an average of fifteen such scareware sites per day during the first half of 2009, a three-fold increase over the same period last year.
Just about any newsworthy tragedy is likely to be used as a theme to promote scareware portals these days, one of the easiest mechanisms for cybercrooks to make money.
Definition of scareware in US English:
scareware
nounˈskerˌwerˈskɛrˌwɛr
informal
Malicious computer programs designed to trick a user into buying and downloading unnecessary and potentially dangerous software, such as fake antivirus protection.
another worrying finding of the report is the huge increase in scareware
Example sentencesExamples
Sophos picked up an average of fifteen such scareware sites per day during the first half of 2009, a three-fold increase over the same period last year.
In fact, McAfee itself has recently reported that cybercriminals made profits of $300 million globally from scamming consumers with scareware.
On average, Sophos identifies five new scareware websites every day, with the figure peaking at over 20 per day on occasion.
This past weekend, even the New York Times was duped into running a scareware ad on their site.
Visitors to the New York Times website who were served the poisoned advert saw pop-up messages warning them that their computer had been infected, and urging them to install scareware.
The people behind the adverts encourage Apple Macintosh users to download a piece of scareware called MacSweeper.
The firm has identified more than 250 versions of this software, known as "scareware".
Symantec also believes some people distributing the scareware could be earning more than a million dollars each year.
Symantec said that scareware vendors go to great lengths to initimidate and trick web users in to purchasing this malicious software.
Rogue/fake applications (scareware) such as this have been around for years on Windows.
Just about any newsworthy tragedy is likely to be used as a theme to promote scareware portals these days, one of the easiest mechanisms for cybercrooks to make money.