Lavasoft, the creators of Ad-Aware, have created an index for consumers, which lists details and information on Rogue anti-Virus. The Rogue Gallery, as it is called, contains the common name and infection points for the various samples of Rogue anti-Virus applications collected by Lavasoft.
Lavasoft creates index of Rogue anti-Virus
The reasoning for the creation of The Rogue Gallery is simple. “By providing a comprehensive database of current rogue security applications, you have the ability to clearly see what programs are considered rogue – and avoid them,” Lavasoft explains.
“Taking the form of legitimate-looking anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware products, these rogue applications look to be beneficial from a security perspective but provide little or no security, generate misleading alerts, or attempt to lure users into participating in fraudulent transactions - blurring the lines between genuine software and applications that put you in harm’s way.”
Rogue anti-Virus applications are the new wave of crime online. The returns earned by the criminals on the little to no investment it takes to distribute the Rogue anti-Virus applications make this Rogue software the first line of payload in most cases when Websites are hijacked or advertising networks compromised. Even Conficker, the Worm that earned the spotlight for most of last fall and into the past summer, ended up serving Rogue anti-Virus as an update instruction.
The Rogue Gallery, powered by the Malware Labs at Lavasoft, lists every Rogue anti-Virus application added to Ad-Aware’s threat database throughout Lavasoft’s history. It currently houses over 500 examples. We talked to another vendor who has done some extensive research onto Rogue anti-Virus applications, Panda Security. Sean-Paul Correll, who co-authored a report on the new crime trend, explained that there are almost 200 families of Rogue anti-Virus applications online, each of them just as dirty as the next. The money made by the criminals is the driving factor though. In 2008, one criminal earned over $81,000 USD in just six days.
“The Rogueware problem has grown exponentially in the past few years because of its ability to trick consumers into purchasing the false software and therefore earning millions of dollars in revenue for cyber criminals,” Correll said.
“In Q1 of 2009 PandaLabs received more Rogueware samples than in all of 2008 and there are no signs of the problem ending in 2010. Cyber criminals have evolved this attack over the years from simple websites to extremely realistic copies of the Microsoft Windows look and feel designed to prey on naïve users. Distribution efforts have also evolved over the years to take advantage and exploit ad networks, search engine results, and social networks.”
For the record, Panda checked-in almost 55,000 samples of Rogue anti-Virus applications in 2008.
As for The Rogue Gallery, you can check that out by heading here.
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