Cyber crims makes millions through fake anti-virus software

Kelly Gregor

Cyber criminals are taking control of people’s computers and forcing them to buy compromised malware in order to regain control of their machines, online security specialists AVG says.

The biggest challenge facing anti-virus and anti-spyware providers is making people aware of the constant dangers online. Most users don’t realise when they have entered a bad site and don’t realise they have a virus until its too late.

AVG global security strategist Larry Bridwell said the industry, the providers and the media needed to raise awareness and better educate people about the threats online, as the people creating and developing the attacks were only after one thing, money.

Mr Bridwell said AVG was seeing anywhere between 100,000 to 200,000 new variants of cyber crime via phishing attacks, spam, worms and viruses. About 60% of these new attacks are online for less than a day.

AVG research Nick Fitzgerald said cyber criminals were making millions of dollars every year from tricking people into buying goods they never receive, or hacking into financial systems and stealing money by forcing people to buy bad malware in order to regain control of their machines.

Mr Fitzgerald said the problem with the latter was that once compromised malware has been downloaded onto a computer, the criminals can hold the machine ransom and demand more money for false updates and upgrades.

Customers using AVG software to protect their computers can receive real-time updates every 30 seconds. Mr Fitzgerald said AVG collected data from its customers’ computers, details including sites visited that have been compromised, where the malware is coming from and how these criminals are manipulating computers and IP addresses to do “their dirty work”.

The majority of money earned through cyber crime in ending back in Eastern Europe, especially the Ukraine and Romania, South East Asia and South America.

“These people are very good at what they do when they put their minds to it. 
But they are lazy because they are only interested in money,” he said.

A good example of this, was when the tsunami hit Samoa, how many bad sites emerged masquerading as legitimate news sites. Mr Fitzgerald said the first seven search links under Samoa tsunami were compromised. These sites appeared before news sites such as The New Zealand Herald, The Times, The Guardian and CNN.

These criminals were playing on the emotion of the event and targeting people’s generosity through false fundraising appeals.

This week, AVG in Australia has reported three compromised Google sites. AVG was in Auckland yesterday to promote the lunch of its new anti-virus platform 9.0.