Fear of Viruses could be causing PC attacks – Reuters
I believe this. Many of my customers, as well some family members and friends have fallen victim to this type of bug. If something pops up warning you of viruses or spyware on your system, make sure that it is the software that you put on your computer to tell you such things…
By Bill Rigby
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Computer users’ growing fear of worms and viruses could be behind a recent spike in attacks on PCs via bogus security software, according to a Microsoft Corp report published on Wednesday.
As the Conficker worm and other malicious software — known as malware — have grabbed headlines, more computer users have been looking for security programs online, some of which turn out to be agents for viruses themselves.
Out of hundreds of millions of PCs monitored by the world’s largest software maker for its twice yearly Security Intelligence Report, seven of the 25 top security threats came in the form of fake security programs.
In the last six months of 2008, Microsoft said it cleared 4.4 million PCs of the most successful bogus security program, which goes under the name of Win32/Renos.
