Beware Antivirus 2009

Beware of fake antivirus software. And beware of a pop-up notice that you have a virus or "might have" a virus (unless the pop-up notice comes from software you already own).

A type of software that tricks you into installing it, then demands payment "or else" is called ransomware. And it's spreading.

One nasty piece of ransomeware seems to be a legitimate program called Antivirus2009. But after you install the software, it encrypts several document types. Then when you try to open one of the encrypted files, it pops up an alert and offers to sell you FileFix Pro 2009, which it says can decrypt the file.

So you get duped into downloading the fix. But it decrypts only one document. After that, it demands that you pay $50 to buy the software to decrypt the rest of your files (that the Antivirus 2009 encrypted).

Beware of "something for nothing". Be paranoid. Check out reviews of software at trusted sites before you download and install any.

Be paranoid!

Be very wary of emails you did not expect to get and of any web pages they may link to. Just because an email or web page looks nice or is interesting or you are just plain curious is no reason to start clicking away.

A case in point is the recent malware that pretends to be about President Obama (or for you Irish folks, O'Bama). The Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) blog has more about this Waledac Trojan, including pictures of an email and the malicious web page.

Remember, it's perfectly OK to be paranoid -- the bad guys really out to get you!

Identifying hoaxes and legends

The US-CERT site has some excellent Cyber Security tips. A recent one is "Identifying hoaxes and urban legends". The article is in clear English, not geek language, and covers:

• Why hoaxes are a problem
• Types of chain letters
• Deciding if an email is a hoax (or legend)