Privacy, Security & Virus Information

Steer Clear of Rogueware, but first of all find out what it is

People who earn their living in the software industry probably comprise the most innovative group of people in the world with, sadly, some of them working on the "wrong side of the tracks".

There is a constant war going on against cybercrime, which seems to pop up in the most original of formats, with one of the latest to rear its ugly head being "rogueware" which, for the common man, means scam anti-virus products.

It’s a funny thing about anti-virus programs, where so money people are prepared to spend hundreds of pounds on upgrading their computer, increased bandwidth and all the latest accessories yet are very reluctant to spend more than £50 to protect their computer, with all the data contained in it, as well as that of their friends, family and colleagues.

Those who lurk in the shadows of cyberspace are well aware of this characteristic and have found yet another way of exploiting it, with the launch of a never-ending stream of Rogueware, with which they tempt the less responsible and easily influenced, with prices of between thirty to fifty pounds for full "anti-virus" protection. Sounds cheap enough, till you discover that these programs at best do nothing and, in most cases, invite all kinds of malware into the innocent victim's computer. The unbelievable truth is that a large number of computer owners have had no form of virus protection on their computer till recently, They only become aware of the need for anti-virus protection when a pop up appears on their computer, advising them to immediately purchase a rogueware product.

Statistics show that there are now 200 different versions of rogueware available online, some of which are very sophisticated. Unfortunately, not in virus protection, but by creating variants programmed to make detection by anti-virus vendors difficult, and also stubbornly refuse to be removed from a computer system, using background processes to protect un-installation or tampering. To date, Windows has introduced an uninstall set-up to deal with just 27 of the 200 rogue anti-virus software programs from the computer system, through their Malicious Software Removal Tool which is updated every second Tuesday of the month, as part of the Patch Tuesday set up.

Rogueware is becoming a serious problem for the innocent and an increasingly big earner for cyber criminals, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) estimating that fake anti-virus programs have raked in more than $150 million (£100 million) for scammers so far in 2009.

 
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