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400,000 PCs Infected With Fake "Antivirus 2009"
nandemoari writes "The second month of Microsoft's campaign against fake security software has resulted in the removal of the rogue "Antivirus 2009" application from almost 400,000 infected PCs. Microsoft claims that December's version of the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) — the free utility included in Windows Update every month — specifically targeted 'Antivirus 2009.' According to Microsoft, MSRT removed the rogue application from over 394,000 PCs in the first nine days after it was released on December 9."
In having to do support for assorted windows users, I've seen assorted popup/redirect stuff pushing that particular fine piece of software a lot. Most disconcertingly, it even happens to users visiting what one would think of as reputable sites, on machines with fully updated AV that reports no issues.
I really don't have the time or interest to figure out if the AV is just sucking, and not reporting infections that actually do exist, or if whoever is pushing the software has compromised a bunch of ad providers; but it seems to be a big issue in windows land(poor bastards).
Yup, I've removed it from 14 Windows PC's belonging to neighbours & friends. Malwarebytes was a handy tool.
The annoying thing though, most of them installed it themselves, deliberately, thinking they were doing "good".
Bah. Hang the authors of "Antivirus 2009" up by their nadgers.
If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
The idea of MSFT deleting a program (albeit a piece of malware) from my machine bothers me.
When will their idea of malware differ from mine?
Will they always do it correctly (no collateral damage)?
This family of infectors is probably, by far, the worst spyware/hijacking peice of junk I've ever seen. I can't help but feel that 400,000 isn't nearly the number that has actually been infected, simply because nobody I know actually uses MSRT, and I seriously doubt that any machine that gets infected with it could actually get back into the condition where it can download and/or install MSRT, or virtually any other software. It's just that bad.
I'm not saying this as flamebait but I'm really tired of users who consistently post in forum after forum that they don't run antivirus, firewall, or antimalware applications. Then, just like you, they claim they don't have any infections. How would you know even if you had an infection without running a scanner? Online scanners are great but they only cover files that you're going to run of your own volition. They do not cover infections that occur through holes in the browser and/or OS. This is where the fundamental problem lies in your strategy.
Case in point, lets say you browse to a website that uses a hole in your browser to get code onto your system that opens a port via UPNP in your router. Then through the open port your machine starts infecting/spamming others. How would your methods guard against that?
Safe computer habits are great when you can trust your Operating System and browser to be secure all while you're not logged in with an account with "Administrator" (root) level privileges. Too bad Windows can't be trusted to be secure and, therefore, necessitates the need for antivirus, antimalware, and firewall.
So how long will it take to clean up the entire population of Windows PCs?
This kind of propaganda is counterproductive. First of all, this is a negligible effect, secondly it pretends that MS takes care of Windows users, and thirdly it doesn't emphasize that safe computing is far more important than all security software in the world.
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