Friday, September 3, 2010

New Malware disguises itself as browser security warning

It looks pretty good, too:

Here's the Internet Explorer variant:


Both of these new attacks have a link that leads you to a site that tries to sell you "scareware" - something that purports to be antivirus that cleans up the "attack" that the malware reported. Of course, it's a scam.

Here's a simple rule to keep in mind: your browser will never recommend a new security tool. It will recommend getting a patch, at least if it's Firefox. That's been something that's looked like A Good Thing, until now.

My recommendation: run Windows Update, and don't ever click through to anything that your browser recommends. If you want to close a warning window, use the "X" in the upper right hand corner to close the window (or the tab). Don't trust buttons or links in a browser to close the dang thing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tricksy little hobbitses, aren't they?

Jim

Kansas Scout said...

I have encountered both of these. Particularly the first. I am so leery of these things having been bit in the past, I do control alt delete to close it, even if I end up closing the browser. I am relieved to hear I can just click the X on the upper right safely.