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VIGILANT!Windows 8 isn’t out yet, but hackers are already taking advantage of the buzz surrounding the name.
According to security firm McAfee, the company
has come across a fake antivirus/antimalware tool called “Win 8 Security system” that claims to detect malware but in fact does nothing more than throw up fake warnings that it offers to “fix” in exchange for a fee.
“The Win 8 Security System is typical rogue, or fake, antivirus software,” writes Naganathan Jawahar for the McAfee blog. ”After infecting a user’s system, this malware scares its victim into buying the “product” by displaying fake security messages, stating that the computer is infected with spyware or other malware and only this product can remove it after you download the trial version. As soon as the victim downloads Win 8 Security System, it pretends to scan your computer and shows a grossly exaggerated amount of nonexistent threats”.
This sort of malware is commonplace, with examples existing for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and even Mac OS X. What’s amazing is not that the hackers have decided to use the Windows 8 name, but the fact that they chose to do this before Windows 8 is even out.
From
Forbes“The Win 8 Security System is typical rogue, or fake, antivirus software,” writes Naganathan Jawahar for the McAfee blog. ”After infecting a user’s system, this malware scares its victim into buying the “product” by displaying fake security messages, stating that the computer is infected with spyware or other malware and only this product can remove it after you download the trial version.
As soon as the victim downloads Win 8 Security System, it pretends to scan your computer and shows a grossly exaggerated amount of nonexistent threats”.
This is very interesting that it’s happening so soon in the cycle and in this case, it’s just trying to get money.
In more extreme cases, these fake “ANTIVIRUS” tools could be used to implant viruses, trojans, malware and all sort of nasty stuff on your PC.
You need to be extremely careful what you allow to get installed on your PC.
