Links
Beware Fake Antivirus Sites
We’ve seen a lot of fake antivirus sites and warnings for a while now, but they’re really starting to pick up. If you see anything for Antivirus 2009 or Antivirus 2008, these are fakes, and will install a trojan horse onto your system. Unfortunately, these sites look very professional and legitimate. The malware database blog (linked below) has some good screenshots of these sites. Remember, do not install any products from vendors you do not know. If you are unsure if an antivirus vendor is reputable, a good list of respected AV vendors is at Virus Total (http://www.virustotal.com/sobre.html). Be sure to inform your coworkers so they don’t install this product at work or at home.
On a side note, Virus Total is a great place to check a file you think might be malicious. Just use their homepage to upload the file, and it will check it against all of the antivirus vendors it has listed. This is also a good reminder that antivirus software is not 100% effective. Check out Virus Total’s statistics for a good visual (http://www.virustotal.com/estadisticas.html). Almost all files uploaded that were found malicious by at least 1 vendor were also missed by at least 1 vendor.
Reference Links:
- SANS Internet Storm Center (http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=5042&rss)
- Virus Total (http://www.virustotal.com/)
- The Malware Database (http://malwaredatabase.net/blog/)