Schneier On Scareware Vendor Lawsuits

Bruce Schneier's blog says "This is good: Microsoft Corp. and the state of Washington this week filed lawsuits against a slew of 'scareware' purveyors, scam artists who use fake security alerts to frighten consumers into paying for worthless computer security software. "

Comments

Microsoft is sueing themselves?

[El_Muerte_TDS]

scam artists who use fake security alerts to frighten consumers into paying for worthless computer security software

Sounds a lot like an average Windows advertisement.

Unnecessary blog reference

[g051051]

Why does this even reference Bruce Schneier's blog? There's no added value from there. Why not just reference the original article?

Re:Unnecessary blog reference

[mcgrew]

Bruce Schneier has a lot more credibility in the security field than the Washington Post, the State of Washington, and Microsoft all put together.

Re:FAKE security warnings, for Windows?

[sjwest]

If you run a linux os with a modern web browser, and you visit a site with the scareware it is mildly amusing to see that your registry is screwed up and the site looks like internet explorer in colour scheme but you can download an exe to fix.

Its happened twice to me, and i find them amusing.

Im quite sure this is how windows zombies get signed up, but my penguin knows better.

Re:colors

[MBGMorden]

Too obvious for your normal user, yes. Your average geek isn't going to get fooled by these things anyways (heck with the way NoScript and my popup blockers are set I don't see them at all anyways). But to the guy who fumbles with the power button and whose eyes glaze over when you speak of "cut and paste", changing the window colors and then having the foresight to pickup on a different color showing up being bad, is way beyond their capabilities.

Re:FAKE security warnings, for Windows?

[gaderael]

...after all, is there anything as insecure as Windows?

Emo kids?