Cloud Antivirus Hoax In Facebook
By Arnab Ghosh, Gaea News NetworkWednesday, April 7, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO (GaeaTimes.com)- It is a common strategy of the malicious hackers and creators of malware to spread their harmful applications by presenting them as antivirus products to unsuspecting users. A lot of people receive spam mails containing such fake system security products that are actually malware in disguise. Recently, a fake antivirus was traced by noted security company F-Secure on Facebook. The fake antivirus reportedly shows false links to Panda Cloud Antivirus. It offers free download option to deceive the less tech savvy users.
The new fake antivirus with fake links to Panda Cloud Antivirus is doing the rounds in the web. The Cloud antivirus technology is being touted as the next generation system security measure. So far a few users have reported infection from this worm. However, not many users are aware of its existence as such as it has surfaced quite recently. It has been found that the fake AV program uses the icon on Norton antivirus to dupe the users. If a user makes the mistake of clicking on its icon it starts spreading the infection. It selects random names from the Facebook address book of the victims and sends them the fake offer as well.
The security experts have warned the Facebook users to stay away from this malware that cleverly uses logos and icons of Panda Cloud Antivirus to cheat users. Earlier, such fake program makes used to spam others with such offers but these days they have changed the track. The popularity of the social networking sites like Facebook has prompted them to use these to their benefit.
