Anatomy of a malware scam: The evil genius of XP Antivirus 2008

[Curlyben]

A long read and a little techie, but well worth it especially with the amount of malware wild on the net. This is why I always recomend surfing with Paranoid mode fully engaged and a hit Tin Foil hat.


Anatomy of a malware scam | The Register

Funnily enough I received an e-mail advertising this product this morning.
Here's the body:

Free Update Windows XP,Vista
(This part is a link to one of the sites in an IP format)

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Trust NO ONE !!!

[Niklowe]

Re: Anatomy of a malware scam: The evil genius of XP Antivirus 2008

The computer that I've just fixed had this. I had to really delve around to get rid of all traces of it.

[righty]

Re: Anatomy of a malware scam: The evil genius of XP Antivirus 2008

I'm a computer dummy so how would I know if I had it infecting mine & what exactly does it do

[Paule]

Re: Anatomy of a malware scam: The evil genius of XP Antivirus 2008

I'm a computer dummy so how would I know if I had it infecting mine & what exactly does it do

Have a read of this thread
Securing Your Web Browser - Legal Beagles

as well as some of the others in this forum

PKea

[righty]

Re: Anatomy of a malware scam: The evil genius of XP Antivirus 2008

Thanks had a brief look & am terrified:cry: but I still don't know what this malware does??

[Paule]

Re: Anatomy of a malware scam: The evil genius of XP Antivirus 2008

Thanks had a brief look & am terrified:cry: but I still don't know what this malware does??

Malware - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

there is\some info, sorry not got time to explain in the post

[Curlyben]

Re: Anatomy of a malware scam: The evil genius of XP Antivirus 2008

In this case they try and scare you into parting with money for a product that doesn't actually do anything.
Other malwares do various things including private data mining, making your PC part of a zombie bot net, a spam e-mail relay and pretty much anything nefarious you can think of.