We all know about the free antivirus by Microsoft. Now there seems to be a fake one too… Microsoft is warning users about a new threat – Fake version of, the Security Essentials. The fake anti-virus, known as Security Essentials 2010 is actually a trojan Win32/Fakeinit, which installs itself to detect cases of breaking at random infected errors, saying they are infected.
“It’s normal to see criminals mimic the Security Center. So I inevitably have a fake anti-virus masquerading as something similar to Essentials. Only I’m amazed to have taken so long, “said David Wood, an expert in Microsoft Malware Protection Center.
Once active, the program pretends to monitor the machine finding several viruses that exist on the operating system. While cleaning the system, it asks for the User to buy the full version of the product.
Microsoft analysts says:
“As always warned, our product can be downloaded and used free of charge for customers using genuine copies of Windows. So a product that mimics our solution and still asks payment does not mean good thing, “.
Another trick performed by the threat is to change the wallpaper on your computer, which shall display a message saying the system is infected. Some changes in the registry can easily prevent the Users from changing the wallpaper.
The company asks for your customers to download only from trusted sites. Another way to protect yourself is to keep your security software updated with the latest definitions of all threats.
