September 18, 2009

McAfee warns of bogus security suite

McAfee is warning users about a rogue security application that masquerades as the company's flagship anti-virus suite.

The security company said that the bogus software, known as 'AntiVirus Pro', is using McAfee's own application icons in an attempt to trick users into believing that the product is genuine.

Rogue security applications use methods such as fake scans and deceptive alert messages to con users into believing that their systems are infected. After the application is purchased, the tools do nothing to protect the system and often install malware.

McAfee researcher Abhishek Karnik said in a blog post that 'AntiVirus Pro' attempts to take advantage of the trust the company has built up with its customers.

Karnik advised users to carefully inspect security tools and avoid trusting downloads based simply on an icon or file property information.

"It has become a common sight for malware to be spoofing program file resources such as icons or company information from other legitimate software," he wrote.

"It is easy for less computer savvy users to trust that a program is legitimate based on the visible features of a file, such as its icon or file properties. It is a nice facade for malware to slip through."

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