Posts tagged Rogue Malware Alert
Alert: Another Fake Email install Rogue Software (From Panda Labs Blog)
Mar 6th
One of the biggest reasons why TechGeekandMore started came from how many customers I had (and still have) to visit every week to either clean Viruses of PC or (even worse) recover as many files as possible and then reinstall Windows. I wanted a way a to try and alert and educate my customers about how …..
- No African Prince was going give you millions
- Emails that say that they are from a friend or family with that weird looking attachment could actually be fake
- Hot College Girl……well this one just really doesn’t have much beyond “Don’t do it”.
ETC ETC ETC…….
In those lines a new email starting this week, that has only 1 goal, to trick you into downloading and installing some really nasty software (more of the fake antivirus software). This new email says that “You have received a postcard”……
The following information comes from PANDALABS blog ( http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/the-thousand-faced-rogue/ (http://pandalabs NULL.pandasecurity NULL.com/the-thousand-faced-rogue/))
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The Thousand-Faced Rogue
Mar 5
- Posted on 03/5/10 by Olaiz (http://pandalabs NULL.pandasecurity NULL.com/author/olaiz/)
We want to inform you of a new flood of email messages that seem to contain a postcard but are actually distributing malware. Concretely, we’ve seen several thousands in a few hours.
It’s not the first time we see emails like this in circulation, as subjects like “You’ve received a postcard” are very recurrent.
The message is like the following:
The message seems to have been sent by a member of your family through a legal website to download and send postcards, so that users don’t suspect. In order to view the postcard, you have to open the attached file. It’s a file compressed with zip and if you run it, a rogueware program will be installed in your computer, which is different depending on the message and the operating system you have.
The following are some of the names of the fake antivirus that can be installed in your computer if you run this file:
% Antispyware 2010
Antivirus % 2010
% Guardian 2010
% Guardian
% Defender 2010
% Antivirus
% Antivirus 2010
% Antivirus Pro
% Antivirus Pro 2010
% Internet Security
% Internet Security 2010
where % stands for the operating system of the computer in which it is going to be installed. Some examples: XPAntispyware2010, Vista Guardian, Win 7 Antivirus Pro.
Let’s take as an example Antivirus XP 2010 and see the actions it carries out once it has been installed in the computer.
As every rogueware, it starts scanning the system to check if the computer is infected.
Once finished, it displays a list with the malware that has detected in your computer to make you believe that you’ve got a problem and that this program will offer you the solution:
However, all the malware it has detected makes reference to unexisting files, so the only threat you have is the own rogue.
Additionally, it prevents the execution of programs whose window title makes reference to the following programs:
Internet Explorer
Firefox
Several security suites.
When you try to run any of these, a message is displayed informing you that these programs are infected and recommending you to install the fake antivirus to solve the problem.
The following image belongs to the message that is displayed when Firefox is run:
It also contains code to uninstall different security solutions. This way, the computer would be unprotected and the real antivirus programs could not detect it.
Alert: Criminals using Haiti Tragedy for new online scams
Jan 16th
Unfortunately, the bad guys seem to try and use anything that is current in an effort to take advantage of the situation and unsuspecting people, many of which may have their guard down because of the circumstances. The tragedy in Haiti is the latest way for the bad guys to attack.
The FBI released the following warning this week after the earthquake (LINK: http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm (http://www NULL.fbi NULL.gov/cyberinvest/escams NULL.htm))
HAITIAN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF FRAUD ALERT
01/13/10—The FBI today reminds Internet users who receive appeals to donate money in the aftermath of Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti to apply a critical eye and do their due diligence before responding to those requests. Past tragedies and natural disasters have prompted individuals with criminal intent to solicit contributions purportedly for a charitable organization and/or a good cause.
Therefore, before making a donation of any kind, consumers should adhere to certain guidelines, to include the following:
- Do not respond to any unsolicited (spam) incoming e-mails, including clicking links contained within those messages.
- Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as surviving victims or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social networking sites.
- Verify the legitimacy of nonprofit organizations by utilizing various Internet-based resources that may assist in confirming the group’s existence and its nonprofit status rather than following a purported link to the site.
- Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files because the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders.
- Make contributions directly to known organizations rather than relying on others to make the donation on your behalf to ensure contributions are received and used for intended purposes.
- Do not give your personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions: Providing such information may compromise your identity and make you vulnerable to identity theft.
MSNBC has released a list of charitable organizations that are active in Haiti, to help you know that your donation is going to the right place. The list can be found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34835478 (http://www NULL.msnbc NULL.msn NULL.com/id/34835478)
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In addition to the the financial scams, there are now also web scams which will cause your pc to get infected with Rogueware (Things like fake anti-virus messages), while visiting sites that appear to be legit Haiti Support or Information sites.
In the latest attempt to use a news making event, into a way to spread Rogueware, those running what are called SEO (SEO = Search Engine Optimization) are targeting keywords related to the earthquake in Haiti. Running searches on terms such as ‘Haiti’, ‘RT (re-Tweet)’, ‘Wyclef Jean’ and his charity, ‘Port-au-Prince’, Haiti donations, just to name a few are bringing up sites on major search engines pointing users to what they believe to be legitimate news and images related to the tragedy. When in fact, these sites, because the criminals were able to manipulate results of the search engines, are showing fake sites mixed in with real sites.
(http://www NULL.rj-diamond NULL.com/alex/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/haiti_20fraud_201_thumb NULL.jpg)
(Picture from http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/dangerous-web-search-haiti-earthquake.html (http://sunbeltblog NULL.blogspot NULL.com/2010/01/dangerous-web-search-haiti-earthquake NULL.html))
If you encounter one of these fake site, 1st thing that you should NOT DO is click on any pop up or link that says you need to install something to see the site. 1st thing you SHOULD DO is attempt to close your browser by selecting either the X on the top right or by selecting CNTR-ALT-DEL on your keyboard, going into Task Manager, highlighting your browser, and selecting END TASK (Never attempt to use any of the actual “Close” or “exit” buttons that will appear with the pop up as most of the time the “yes” and “no” button will both do the same thing which is install the Rogue program on your machine).
In addition, as soon as you reopen your browser (after closing it for the pop up), you want to make sure that you go in and clear your Temporary Internet Files and your Internet Cookies (In Internet Explorer its Tools –> Internet Options –> then under browsing history –> delete and then delete all. In Firefox its Tools –> options –> privacy –> clear your recent history / clear your recent cookies). That is in addition to making sure that your Anti-Virus software is up to date, that your Updates for your operating system (Windows, MAC, Linux) are up to date.
(Soapbox**) I continue to point out the need to update, and yet I still regularly get called out to clear infected machines, that are missing updates (Had a Windows PC last week on XP service pack 1 and Norton AV 2004 with updates from September 2005). Not that I don’t want to work, and get paid, but if you really want to make sure you don’t suffer thru the down time and expense of waiting for a tech like myself, UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE. Will updates protect you 100%, no, unfortunately in the age of the internet, new and more innovative ways to beat a system come up 100’s of times every day, seven days a week. However, keep in mind, when you leave your house, you lock your door. Why? Will locking your door, protect your house from being robbed? You hope so, and 99% of the time it will. So updating your system is like locking your door, if you don’t lock your door you will eventually get robed. (End Soapbox)
**Lastly – To the people of Haiti and those readers of TGM with family and friends in Haiti. You have our thoughts, during this difficult time.**
Alert: Rogueware with new Ransom Technology (This takes it up to a whole new level!)
Oct 19th
The challenge these days seem to be to try and stay ahead of the criminals who try and steal from you via your computer. I get asked almost daily “Why do I keep having to update my anti-virus, anti-spyware or my anti-malware solutions?” “Can’t I just update it once and get it over with?” Well the simple answer is NO!
Let me ask you this, why do you listen to the traffic every morning on the radio on the way to work? Isn’t finding that route to work, where you can stop and get breakfast or your coffee at Starbucks good enough? Won’t that get you what you need? Well……of course the answer is no. We all listen in case that one day we hear about a traffic accident or police action or broken water main or …… well you get the idea. We want to know this so that we can get a different route and try and avoid getting stuck in a traffic mess. Your route may never be affected, but you listen anyways everyday because that 1 time you don’t listen, you know will be the 1 time that your 30 minute commute will become 4 hours (I did have that once, it was a nightmare). Ok so if you know put that analogy to why you update your software (Operating System, Software, and your Anti-Virus/Anti-malware protection), its basically so that you can hope that you never run into that “nightmare situation”.
Now let me tell you a little about the latest nightmare that the bad guys have started releasing on to the internet that you and I travel. This one is called TotalSecurity2009 (From the same people that brought you AntiVirus2008, AntiVirus2009, and many others http://techgeekandmore.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/alert-another-fake-anti-virus-program/ (http://techgeekandmore NULL.wordpress NULL.com/2009/08/29/alert-another-fake-anti-virus-program/)). This one does the same things as the others, you go to an infected website and you see a pop up that says “Your computer is infected, click scan now to clean your machine” (or something to that effect depending on which one you get).
(http://www NULL.rj-diamond NULL.com/alex/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/personalavfakeinstallmessage NULL.jpg)
Then all of a sudden you start getting these pop-ups that look official and legit and even look like they my be part of your operating system, telling you that “the sky is falling” and that you need to buy (insert Rogue Malware name here), and that you can pay $XX amount of dollars (of course by major credit card) and they will clean your pc for you. That’s like having a burglar walk up to your house and say, sorry I just robbed your house, may I now install your new security system to keep me from robbing you again!
Ok back to TotalSecurity2009, this one has a new wrinkle. An extra level of sophistication, like we haven’t really seen before. In the past when you go infected you suffered thru allot of pop-ups and messages, but for the most part all functions of a pc still worked (OK except maybe web browsing to a legitimate web Anti-Virus website which previous ones would redirect your webpage so that you would only see Antivirus site pages they wanted you to see). In TS2009, its different, TS2009 actually locks all your applications and files, except for Internet Explorer and that is basically so that Internet Explorer can keep giving you messages that you need to pay $79.99 to get the unlock code for TotalSecurity2009 and then be able to use TotalSecurity2009 to clean your system. So in essence, if your a non-technical person and don’t know any better, you will feel like you have no choice but to pay them to release your pc from malware jail.
Here is the biggest problem with paying them, because to me it really isn’t about the $79.99, you will probably never get billed that amount. What you will have done is given a criminal your name and information and your credit card number and in fact what it will cost you will probably be more than $79.99 with your information out in the open for the bad guys to use (and charge your card) at will until you have to close and change your accounts.
The following Video comes from Panda Labs (A maker of legitimate Anti-Virus / Anti-Malware software) that shows how the rogue malware works and what effects it will have on your pc.
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.3686216&w=425&h=350&fv=]
more about “From Panda Labs: Rogueware with new R… (http://vodpod NULL.com/watch/2362304-from-panda-labs-rogueware-with-new-ranson-technology?pod=techgeekandmore)“, posted with vodpod (http://vodpod NULL.com?r=wp)
Additional information from Panda Labs can be found at http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/archive/Rogueware-with-new-Ransomware-Technology_2221_.aspx (http://pandalabs NULL.pandasecurity NULL.com/archive/Rogueware-with-new-Ransomware-Technology_2221_ NULL.aspx)
Panda Labs has also cracked the Rogue Anti-Virus so that you can unlock your machine if you get infected with this Rogue malware. Once you unlock your machine, you can download a 1 month free trial of the Panda Global Protection software that you can then use to clean your pc http://www.pandasecurity.com/usa/homeusers/downloads/register?Tipo=1&CodigoProducto=60&Idioma=2&TipoUsuario=12&Country=US&TipoLead=2&Ref=WWUS-GP10-DWN (http://www NULL.pandasecurity NULL.com/usa/homeusers/downloads/register?Tipo=1&CodigoProducto=60&Idioma=2&TipoUsuario=12&Country=US&TipoLead=2&Ref=WWUS-GP10-DWN)
Additionally you can also download Malwarebytes http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?part=dl-10804572&subj=dl&tag=button (http://download NULL.cnet NULL.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572 NULL.html?part=dl-10804572&subj=dl&tag=button) and SuperAntiSpyware http://superantispyware.com/ (http://superantispyware NULL.com/) to do additional scanning of your machine to make sure everything is clean.
Remember, all 3 of these products plus all other PC security software that is from a legitimate software company still needs to be updated by you the user before scanning or attempting to clean any malware from your pc, because you don’t know if your infection was created weeks ago or 1 hour ago and all security software needs to have the latest updates from its maker in order to give you the best chance and cleaning your pc.
(http://www