Malware creators utilize scary pictures and language to trick people into believing their computer is infected, and ultimately attempt to make the individual purchase something to remove the fabricated “threats”.

In my experience as an IT support technician, this type of malware is generally installed on an individual’s computers when they click a seemingly harmless link on a website or download a file.  This means the malware can be prevented if users know what to look for and follow safe browsing habits. This article will provide one example of how to do that.

Malware in Disguise

Recently I came across a very interesting pop-up I hadn’t seen before:

At first glance, this error message looks like a legitimate virus notification.  However, this image has some flaws that, with the right knowledge, make it easy to spot as a fake and avoid the consequences of clicking on it.

How to Identify a Fake Virus Notification

The first giveaway that the virus notification shown above is a fake is that it shows the virus scanner running in a “My Computer” window (as seen in the title of the window).  This implies that the virus scanner is a part of Windows, but Microsoft does not have any antivirus software integrated directly into the operating system.

Second, nothing happens when trying to move the window.  Moving the mouse cursor over the buttons doesn’t make them change like you normally see in Windows. You can also observe that there are numerous spelling and grammar mistakes in the text – any professional product would not contain such mistakes so frequently.

Finally, my taskbar only showed that Firefox, iTunes, and Pidgin windows were open, no antivirus. However, it showed an extra Firefox window which I had not opened. At this point I clicked it to bring that window to the foreground and the bogus virus scan appeared.

Since experiencing that first pop-up, I have seen several others that are similar. Each has its own unique features, but the general premise in all of them is the same. Observation techniques such as the ones I used in this situation can be used to determine the legitimacy of many other fake notifications and will help you avoid viruses.

Additional Tips

Besides the specifics of the example in this article, here are some general “good computing” habits to prevent you from being a victim of this latest type of virus:

• Have legitimate antivirus software installed and updated (Microsoft Security Essentials, avast!, Avira, and AVG are all good antivirus products that can be downloaded and used free of charge).
• Know the name and logo of your installed antivirus software.  If you see a notification with a different name, you’ll immediately know that it’s a fake.
• Take time before clicking on links or images to make sure you know what they are and where they lead.

In the past, this type of virus has been relatively easy to remove.  However, recent iterations have proved more tenacious, which makes it that much more important to know how to prevent them.

Have you have encountered any similar pop-ups? Or have you gotten the malware that can be caused by them? Do you have any other additions, comments or questions about good browsing habits to prevent getting malware? Please let me know in the comments below!

Image Credit: http://www.salisbury.edu/helpdesk/

The post Don’t Get Caught Off Guard By Web Pages Imitating Antivirus Software first appeared on Techerator.

My first experience with Security Essentials was on my own computer. It had some relatively benign spyware which wasn’t being removed by my standard set of scans, so I thought I’d give Microsoft Security Essentials a try.

As Evan mentioned in his article, Microsoft Security Essentials is a quick, painless installation and it automatically updates its virus definitions. This is a handy feature because it prevents me from wasting time by running a scan and then realizing I forgot to update and having to do it all over again.

After updating the virus definitions, I elected to go straight for the full scan option, not really knowing what to expect in terms of time. The full scan took about 3 hours to finish. This was on an older computer, but it still surprised me how long it took. However, the wait was worth it, as it found and easily removed the malware that none of the other products I tried were able to!

Since I found Microsoft Security Essentials to be successful at home, I have been using it more frequently at my IT job. Although it still isn’t part of the standard set of scans we run, Microsoft Security Essentials seems to find malware that other applications miss. Most of the time, it takes care of the malware without causing any additional problems to the system.

We’ve recently seen an issue with a Windows Update for Windows XP combined with a virus causing a Blue Screen of Death error.  Kevin wrote a fantastic guide to resolving the problem, and he found that using Microsoft Security Essentials seems to be the most successful  method for removing this particularly nasty malware.

Conclusion

Although the full scan still seems to take significantly longer than other products on the same hardware, it can be worth the time because Microsoft Security Essentials finds malware that other products miss. I still recommend using a combination of anti-malware products when running manual scans (since each one has unique strengths and weaknesses), but if your usual set of scans does not do the trick, I would give Microsoft Security Essentials a spin!

Have you used Security Essentials? Have your results been similar to mine, or have you had a different experience? I’d love to get feedback in the comments below!

The post Follow Up: My Experience with Microsoft Security Essentials Anti-Malware Software first appeared on Techerator.